【Is 80% of 'hating math' decided back in elementary school?】｜Arithmetic｜Math｜Elementary School｜Junior High School｜High School｜Study｜Multiplication｜Times Tables｜

When I look at the notebooks of junior high and high school students who come to me for advice saying, 'I just don't understand math at all...', I notice a common thread. It is never the case that they are unintelligent or lack motivation.

However, when I dig deeper, I arrive at an unexpected place. Yes, it is the 'times tables' learned in elementary school.

・Tracing 'math failure' leads back to the times tables

Students who are holding their heads in their hands, saying 'I don't understand the slope of a function,' 'I can't solve equations,' or 'I can't do factorization.' When I trace their calculations with them, I find that an astonishing number of them are actually stuck on small mistakes in their times tables, such as '7×8＝54'.

You might think, 'That's just the times tables,' now that you are in junior high or high school. But this few-second 'clog' is what significantly derails your subsequent mathematical life.

・Why the times tables become a 'fatal wound'

Math is a cumulative subject. If the times tables don't come out in an 'instant,' the speed of subsequent division, fractions, and factorization drops sharply. Or, it can lead to a chain reaction: you can't do division → you start to hate fractions → you can't find the 'combinations' in factorization → and eventually, you become convinced that you 'hate math.'

The biggest problem is that your brain's memory is being consumed by calculation. When your brain is full of calculation, you lose the capacity to think about the essential 'logic.' Calculation errors increase → grades drop → you fall under the curse of 'I have no talent for math' → 'I hate math.' The entrance to this negative loop is actually in arithmetic.

・The difference between 'remembering' and 'mastering'

The times tables are not just rote memorization. They are the same as 'basic practice' or 'swing practice' in sports. As long as you are thinking, 'Uh, seven times... fifty... six? No, seven times six...,' they have not yet become a weapon for you.

How important it is to drill them into your head while you are still in elementary school, to the level where they come out as a reflex in 0.1 seconds. Just as there is no professional who stands at the plate thinking about how to swing a bat, it is impossible to solve math while thinking about the times tables.

・A message from a former math teacher

Seeing things on the front lines, I think that the idea that 'things will work out once you get to junior high' is quite harsh when it comes to math.

Therefore, as a former teacher, this is the one thing I want to convey to parents who have elementary school children now: 'Please make sure they practice the times tables until they can say them like breathing'.

'Remembering them vaguely' is not enough. The level where, if someone says '6×7!', you reply '42!' in 0.1 seconds. I believe that will become your strongest weapon when you face complex equations and functions in the future.

Please, give it a try. If you resonated with this, please like and follow.