Learn to like math as the teacher

Good teacher loves his/her subject matter. That's old wisdom.

Obviously not all people who teach math actually like or love it - I've had homeschooling moms admit that, for example.

The sad thing about that is that you're probably transferring your attitudes to your students: your students will end up not liking math either.

What to do?

Well, try change your attitude:
--> Think back and try find the reason as to WHY you don't like math. Was it some bad experience in school? See if you can overcome or ignore that factor, whatever it is.

Maybe you had not-so-enthusiastic math teachers yourself. Maybe you don't like math because you don't understand it. Or, you feel "I'm just not a math person - I'm no good at math."

The last one is probably not true... it's largely a myth. Any normal person with normal intelligence can learn basic math.

Maybe you as the homeschooling parent suffered from math anxiety yourself? If so, I encourage you to read this excellent article that explores the reasons for math anxiety and some very common myths about math, such as:
MYTH #1: APTITUDE FOR MATH IS INBORN.
MYTH #2: TO BE GOOD AT MATH YOU HAVE TO BE GOOD AT CALCULATING.
MYTH #3: MATH REQUIRES LOGIC, NOT CREATIVITY.
MYTH #4: IN MATH, WHAT'S IMPORTANT IS GETTING THE RIGHT ANSWER.
MYTH #5: MEN ARE NATURALLY BETTER THAN WOMEN AT MATHEMATICAL THINKING.

It's a long article but WELL worth reading for all math teachers!
Coping with math anxiety

Categories: philosophy, math