The average youth today has given up on understanding the mechanics of mathematics. It just doesn’t talk to them. Why is that? Their aversion to the subject may start as early as the second or third grades when the multiplication tables are first introduced and studying them takes just too much effort. And this is followed soon after by division and geometry, subjects that don’t seem to have any relevance to most teens.
What seems to be missing in educating children in math is its relevance to their everyday lives. With the ease of clicking on their smartphone calculator app to figure out even the simplest equation, why would they need to understand how a 10% discount on a $100 MP4, means they end up paying $10 less? The important thing to them is the final cost.
The importance of a good understanding of numbers seems to have faded with the advanced technological devices available to us and the situation has not been helped by the use of outdated teaching methods especially in the poorer schools in every country. Still, even children of low socio-economic backgrounds may possess significant mathematical aptitudes. And indeed, it has been found that mathematical proficiency (often linked with language) may even ‘run in families.’
