Introduction
Mathematics is applied in every aspect of this life be it in our personal or professional lives. Mathematics is used to budget money and time, these aspects do not require formulas. People do not even realize they are applying mathematical concepts when budgeting. As a child I used to enjoy counting the number of stairs, this is whenever I went up the stairs. Mathematics was interesting by then; it involved simple concepts that did not require complex formulas.
As I grew up, I realized that mathematics was not as simple as I thought. My high school teacher could introduce new concepts now and then; with time I realized that with mathematics a lot of practice was required. Mathematics during my childhood was interesting; the teacher could make us practice until it became almost automated without us realizing it. Allen (2001) says that teachers use this tactic at elementary level to make mathematics interesting.
Main Body
I compare mathematics to climbing a wall, sometimes it is very easy while it can prove to be very hard sometimes. One of my mathematics teachers used to describe mathematics as ‘a voyage of discovery. I am opposed to this, this is because sometimes we attempt to find solutions to mathematical problems but do not get to arrive at the correct answer, instead, we get more and more confused.
At one point, I remember our elementary teacher telling us that one divided by zero equals zero, this concept however changed when I joined high school, we were told that the answer is infinite. Could be that the elementary teacher did not want to go into detail about this since it would have been hard for us to understand.
In his book Overcoming Math Anxiety Tobias (2002), states that most people enjoy learning mathematics when they fully understand the concept. This statement is agreeable, it is common to find students doing calculations and arriving at an answer but if asked questions, they cannot infer anything from the answer they have gotten. I have experienced this severally, at some point; I could completely get absorbed when solving some mathematics problems that I even forget the time factor. This is when I can comfortably state what the answer means.
When it becomes hard to understand a mathematical concept, I spend less time trying to understand the concept since the efforts are not in most cases rewarding. A topic such as ordinary differential and linear algebra gave me a hard time. It is interesting to note that most students will have varying ideas of a topic; this just shows that the topic has not been well presented or is too hard for the students to understand (Tobias, 2002).
One thing that I love about mathematics is that the formulas do not change. Formulas that were introduced by Plato are still being used today (Allen, 2001). This field of study cannot be compared to other fields such as business and arts where ideas keep changing with time. Some simple formulas that were applied in elementary levels are still used in higher levels of learning. I have realized that with a good mastery of most of the formulas, it can be easy to solve most of the problems. To some extent I love mathematics. The main reason is that when it becomes too easy for concepts, I get absorbed and enjoy doing the calculations.
Conclusion
Mathematics was very enjoyable during my childhood years. The teacher was very dedicated when it came to teaching this subject. I had good mastery of the simple concepts taught and one thing that I enjoyed doing most is counting the number of stairs as I climbed up. Today, mathematics has ceased to be my favorite subject; this does not however mean that I hate it. The thing is that I only enjoy dealing with simple concepts. Hard concepts give me a hard time. I must admit that I was not born a mathematician like some people. The little concepts that I have are enough since they enable me to go about my budgeting without any problems.
References
Allen, D. S. (2001). Mathematics experience: contributing factors to the math anxiety and avoidance behaviors of female elementary school pre-service teachers. Texas: Texas Tech University Press.
Tobias, S. (2002). Overcoming math anxiety. New York: W.W. Norton Press.