Maybe because of democracy. In ancient times, all the deals were discussed/finalized in one room. But as society grew, everybody had their own opinions. That's when people thought numbers are one of the ways where people can universally come at one level.
"Do you know how to play basketball the moment you’re born?"
No. It’s a skill which you have developed. The only requirement is you should be interested in learning. If you put in hard work, you'll become good at playing basketball. It’s the same with everything else. We don't know how to speak when we’re born but we never expected that speaking a certain language is a natural talent.
Just like that, maths is a skill. Just by being anxious or rigid, you’re closing the doors. You’re putting intellectual defense right in front of you. The moment you become interested, you become a learner. And the moment you become a learner, you start putting hard work and become good at mathematics.
Sriram: What tips would you like to share with people who think mathematics is some kind of a black box?
Snehal: I would advise starting seeing the numbers differently. Try to see how you can connect them to the real world. Let's say there is a headline in a local newspaper stating ten thousand people were infected in the area. If I sit and look at the number 10,000, I would realize that this is a false number because the total population in this area is around 10,000.
That would mean that everyone is infected by COVID. But that’s not the case. The moment you find a way to connect to numbers, it makes you quite consciously aware of your surroundings. Mathematics is designed to give a reality check of the social and physical world around you.
Sriram: Are there some real-life examples that you would like to share?
Snehal: One of my students was good at mathematics, whatever we used to do in class was very easy for him. We came across one problem which he just couldn't solve. I was just sitting there and watching him struggle. He came up to me and said: “why don't you try this?”. I started doing calculations with him as if I am his assistant. After 40 minutes of struggle, we couldn't solve the problem. He said, “I’m so glad I finally found something that I do not understand”.
He was having pleasure in the fact that he is stuck somewhere. I asked him to stay with that feeling and come up with a solution. And in the next class, we managed to solve the problem. That was a really good moment for us.
One student was really good at math but very academic. The moment you asked him anything out of the syllabus, he used to shut off. We had seen visible changes through the months when we had been taking the course with him. His thinking process changed drastically. He ended up creating a website for maths for younger kids.
"How do you know that you understood a subject?"
The moment you understand it, you have the urge to share it with other people. That is what happened with one of my students and that makes me feel really happy.
One of my students was pretty weak at math. He used to travel a lot during his younger years. His family was going through a transition from one country to another. This happened to him when he was around 8-10 years old and this is the time where you learn the basics of mathematics like multiplication, division, etc. He never really got the essence of it.
Even if he got promoted to the next grade, those concepts stayed the same. After that everything was coming on top of it and he was making mistakes because the concepts were not clear. We went back and talked about the basics. The moment concepts got clear, he became good at mathematics.
Sriram: Let me turn it around, what have you learned about mathematics?
Snehal: One of the most important things that I have learned because of my teaching is the approach towards the subject. I am one of those students who were afraid of geometry. But when the approach changed, everything just became so easy.
To teach students, I happened to push myself to be a better person who understands mathematics. If I wouldn't have been a teacher, probably I wouldn't have bothered so much to make these connections to the real-life world from mathematics.
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