Deconstructing Myths
Most people do not understand what math is. Some think it is just a bunch of numbers and computations. Others see it as a lot of letters and formulas. Still others believe that math is a subject that only a select group of people are equipped to understand. Most think that if you can just memorize all the formulas, rules, and procedures you will be good at mathematics. While it is true that math involves many formulas, rules, procedures and computations, this is not all math is. In fact, merely memorizing formulas, following rote procedures, or mindlessly doing computations will inevitably make you into a poor math student and will rarely develop the skills necessary to become an effective problem solver.
Math is the exploration of patterns and relationships. Patterns and relationships can be numerical, geometrical, spatial, logical, linguistic, pictorial and perhaps many other things. Doing math is figuring out what some of those relationships are. This process does involve computations, procedures, and algorithms, but these make up only part of the picture. The whole point of learning about these activities is to facilitate and expedite the discovery of relationships.