Math and those who hate it

From Tempo

Professor Andi Hakim Nasution wrote in TEMPO recently that it is important to overhaul the teaching plan for mathematics in schools from Elementary right up to Senior High School. I fully agree with him because math is an important tool for brain exercise and its applications are obvious in daily life.

Unfortunately, by the time I realized this fact it was too late, that is, when I finished high school and entered the job market. I regret I could not overcome my dislike of math during my senior high school years.

There are a number of reasons why many of my classmates and I did not like math.

First, math teachers in our school always looked stern. Second, we found math difficult and thought it did not have any application in our daily lives. Third, a lack of display materials made it look more abstract.

Math lessons in other countries, such as Japan or Germany, are always accompanied with display materials and examples of concrete applications.

For example, elementary students are not asked to memorize numbers to learn math, but must bring things like buttons or cobblestones.

WAHYUNI S.

Yokohama, Japan