Reframing How We Think About Math And Science For Our Kids #dyscalculia

Submitted by Judy Hanning on Fri, 2017-01-13 04:00

At an early age, Amanda Rodriguez shelved her dreams of becoming the next Michael Jackson. Instead, she decided to focus on pediatric medicine. She carried around a toy medical bag and played doctor on her Cabbage Patch dolls. Then her sister died, and her entire viewpoint on medicine changed drastically.

I made a vow to my future children (both those I gave birth to and those I would teach in future classes) that they would never feel like they couldn’t understand things, no matter the topic. I would spark their curiosity with interesting, relatable topics, and above all else, I would believe in them.
~ Amanda Rodriguez

“No one is bad at math.”

Refocusing her dreams on a career in pharmacy, her goals changed again after a bad experience with a math class. It wasn’t until she reached grad school and took a math course from a teacher who believed that no one is “bad at math” that she reconsidered her math and science proficiency. Today, she raises her own boys to be active questioners, seekers, and investigators in the world of science.

Key Takeaways:

1
Sometimes children couldn’t be healed with a bandage and a lollipop — that sometimes, they couldn’t be healed at all.
2
And then, he had this really terrible experience in math where the content was difficult and an unsupportive teacher made matters worse.
3
It wasn’t until grad school, where I he was fortunate to get an instructor whose goal was to prove that there’s no such thing as being “bad at math,” that I was able to recover. Sometimes it’s that one teacher that makes the difference.
Read the full article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-rodriguez/reframing-math-science_b_12762526.html