Photo: Public domain
Too often, maths class is a place where you are either right or wrong and there's no space or time for questions, writer and academic Eugenia Cheng says.
If we really value maths education, it's time to take a less rigid and more inclusive approach to it that doesn't put so many people off for life, she tells Nine to Noon.
"What's the point of teaching anyone anything if they only do it to get through their school exams and then empty their brains of it as fast as possible?"
Is Maths Real? The author debunking mathematical myths
Cheng's latest book is called Is Maths Real?
Maths education is great brain training but our rigid way of teaching puts too many people off for life, says academic Eugenia Cheng. Photo: Public domain
People who thrive in a maths class get a lot of self-esteem from being able to get the right answer really fast, Cheng said.
But the many children who struggle to understand, take longer to respond, or ask questions not deemed "good", feel shut out in this setting and then shut down.
These are the people less inclined to linear thinking, she said.
"People who don't want to be competitive or people who think expansively or who think more slowly and carefully through things, or whose brains digress because they're interested and curious or who don't do things the way that they're told all the time, the official way, but think of different ways of doing things, those people get put off."
To better include students whose brains work this way, we need a new system of teaching maths that encourages curiosity, she said, and that also allows time for exploring abstract questions teachers may not know the answers to.
We also need to acknowledge that teaching maths is really hard and place greater value on those who do it, especially in primary schools.
"Unfortunately, people get more kudos the higher up they go as teachers... Imagine if we valued primary school teachers the most because they're the most important. They're at the front line of education. That's the very first meeting that children have with these concepts.
"Why aren't we valuing that and making sure that those people are the most well-equipped, the most respected, the best remunerated all of those things so that children can have the best possible start in life?"
Mathematics education not only trains us to use their brains more powerfully, Cheng said, it also helps develop critical thinking.
"[It's about] getting hold of your intuition and examining it and really analysing it so that you can understand where it came from and to see whether it is founded in good information or bad information.
"We all need to be able to make decent arguments in our daily life and recognise when people are trying to manipulate us."