Hello everyone, welcome to What in the World is Dyscalculia, the podcast that is all about
the math learning disability.
I'm Dr. Honora Wall and I am your host for the podcast presented by EducalcLearning
at educalclearning.com.
We train teachers in Dyscalculia and how to best support students who have the math learning
disability and we also have courses for students who would like to master math and overcome
their specific learning disorders.
You can also find information about Dyscalculia and other types of neurodivergence at the
Dyscalculia Training and Research Institute, thedtri.org.
Lots of free stuff out there.
Grab some PDFs, grab some fact sheets, share them with colleagues, teachers, family and
friends.
Let's raise awareness of Dyscalculia together.
And today in this episode I want to talk about what might be an unpopular opinion, especially
in these times of project based learning and conceptual understanding and deepening the
connection between math and our math students.
So here's my unpopular opinion.
I could care less if a student likes math or not.
That's not my job.
I'm not a marketing director for math.
I'm not running a marketing campaign to convince people of math.
That's not what I'm here for.
I'm here to help people learn how to do it.
I'm here to make sure they graduate high school.
I'm here to make sure they get into and graduate college.
I'm here to make sure they feel empowered to make financial decisions within their families
and for themselves.
And I'm here to make sure they are no longer held back by other people's misinterpretation
of their capabilities.
But if they like math, that's up to them.
I have nothing to do with that.
Those are personal opinions.
And I think that's a really important part of this conversation.
I'm about to present at a conference and I love going to these conferences and talking
to people about neurodivergence.
But I was looking at some of the other sessions on the schedule.
I like to attend as many sessions as possible.
I consider myself a lifelong learner and I want to know what people have to say about
different topics.
Sometimes I'll go to a session on something I know a lot about because I want to know
what other people are saying.
And sometimes I'll go to a session on something I have no idea what it's about and it doesn't
really relate to my work at all because it's still enriching and it's still interesting
and it brings something to my day.
And that's a great thing about these conferences.
If you're an educator, get to as many of these as you can.
They're never going to be a waste of time.
But I did notice and I've seen this trend for a while that there are a lot of sessions
on how to make math come alive or use some real world examples to really engage your
students and how to build the understanding of the big one these days is why we divide
fractions the way we do.
And those are all fine.
I'm not saying that we should not promote those.
We should offer everything we possibly can to our students that could help.
Our job is to present options and to teach people how to do it.
But personally, I just want them to know how to do it and let them open future doors for
themselves.
They don't have to enjoy math in order to be successful at it.
And they don't have to like math in order to be what will we call them a math student,
a mathematician.
Maybe they really like pattern recognition and prediction.
Maybe they really like visual spatial issues.
Maybe they really like the way math intersects with music or art or nature or maybe they
just really like crunching numbers.
All of those are perfectly acceptable.
Even the people who don't like math at all that is still perfectly acceptable.
You're still allowed to be a successful human being.
You're still allowed to make academic achievements.
And you're still allowed to go into the career of your choice, not the ones that were offered
to you as limited options because of not being able to succeed in a traditional math class.
Your personal opinion is your personal opinion.
And that could be about math or about anything else.
And here's another reason why I say that.
When I first shoveled snow, I was 49 years old.
I grew up in the south, never had any interaction with snow.
And in the beginning I really did not like it.
Then I bought a house in the extreme north and had a yard and a sidewalk to maintain.
And I really had to shovel snow and I learned more about how to do it effectively and properly.
Now I really enjoy it.
I like it a lot more than mowing the lawn and I certainly like it more than dealing with
the leaves in the fall.
So I've grown to really enjoy shoveling snow.
That was my choice and my opinion.
Another story, when I first decided to cut out dairy for my diet, I did it for health
reasons and because I knew it was going to get me health benefits that I wanted for myself.
So I will eat the fake cheese.
I'm never going to like the fake cheese.
And you can sit me down and explain to me why non-dairy cheese is a better alternative,
all the great things it's going to do for me, how great it is for the environment or
for animals that don't have to be milked.
Anything that you want to say.
Go right ahead, I'm not going to like fake cheese.
I will politely listen because I like to be a respectful person.
But that's my opinion.
And I'm going to save my cheat days for my trips to Wisconsin and I'm going to go big
or go home with the real cheese.
I'll keep the non-dairy cheese but I'm not going to like it.
And that's okay.
I'm going to be a healthy person whether or not I really enjoy fake cheese.
I'm allowed to be a good homeowner and a good member of my community.
Whether or not I like maintaining my yard or the different aspects of maintaining my
yard.
I really feel this is the same thing with math.
People are allowed to not like it.
I didn't like it for a very long time.
Now I really love it.
If I can show people that bridge, great, that's wonderful.
If I can help them at least dislike it less, great, that's wonderful.
If I can let them see how they can master it or at least pass it and maintain whatever
personal opinion they have about math as a topic, that's great and wonderful too.
My job is to give knowledge and not to sway public opinion or perception.
And I think that we do a disservice when we try to force that love of something whether
it's math or reading or science or art or music or history or anything else.
Swaying public opinion is not what we get paid to do.
We get paid to make sure students have the exposure, the understanding and the knowledge
to maintain conversations, to recognize facts versus opinions, to explore the world they
live in and to master how to navigate this life successfully.
None of that involves personal opinion.
So at the end of this quick podcast today, what if your students don't like math?
Okay, so what?
You can still be effective at your job and they can still be effective students.
What if your school or district or state is really pushing project-based learning and
conceptual understanding or that's something that's very important to you?
Great, fantastic, keep doing that.
Also include the algorithms, the how you get it done so that all students have the ability
to succeed in your class regardless of their personal opinion in either direction about
math.
Let's take that emotional piece out of it and I think we'll be happier as teachers too.
We will get more out of a student who's successful regardless of their opinion.
Their opinion is really none of our business and I think that will also relieve some of
the burnout.
We have so many things as teachers to try to impart this love of things that we love.
That's perfectly normal and natural and that can be a great gift.
It can be wonderful for students to say, oh, I really like this person's passion for this
subject.
Why do they like it so much?
Let me learn some more about this.
So it's a great door opener but just don't close the door on the other people who might
have a different opinion.
How does this relate to dyscalculia?
Well a lot of students who have dyscalculia have years of negative experiences when it
comes to math and math classes and part of our job is going to be helping them overcome
that using social emotional learning principles and best practices and learning a lot about
psychology, internal motivation, self esteem, self definition and trauma response.
Now I'll save that for another podcast.
Most of us are not cut out to be psychologists or psychiatrists and we are not cut out to
really help people through any kind of trauma or anxieties.
I don't want you getting into that arena if it's not your skill set.
You'll definitely do more damage than benefit.
But understanding those principles and understanding how trauma and anxiety and negative experiences
can impact a student's approach, point of view and attitude in your class, that can
be really helpful.
And understanding the importance of creating positive masterful experiences as a door opener
as a way to bring people into the math conversation.
That's really helpful.
And it's necessary if you're working with students who have dyscalculia, especially
the older they get because the more years of negative experiences they've had, we have
to address that piece.
Do we have to get them to become champions of math?
No, I don't think that we do.
But we can certainly help them get to a more positive place than the one they're in when
we first start working with them.
Definitely on the websites and in the podcast, I'll be doing some more talks about this.
Peace, the importance of recognizing and dealing with the trauma that can come from math classes,
is real and valid.
And the fear that a lot of people, especially adults, have about math, talking about math,
being exposed as a person who can't do math, all the things that go along with that, very
real and valid.
And if we're going to help people get past those things and feel confident about their
math abilities, we can't ignore it.
We're going to have to address it.
So we'll have more information about those topics coming soon.
If you have questions or comments about anything that we're talking about in the podcast, I
would love to hear them.
You can reach me at Honora at educalclearning.com or Honora at thedtri.org.
I look forward to having more conversations with you about the math learning disability.
Thank you for listening to What in the World is Dyscalculia, and we'll talk again soon.