This is something that I have actually spent a good deal of time thinking about during my life. The funny thing is that to me, "my loves" have seemed on the opposite ends of the spectrum. I love math. I always have. In fact had you asked me what my favorite subject in 4th grade (or any grade all the way through high school) I would have told you math. In 8th grade my teacher knew that I needed a challenge. He let me work through my math book at my own pace. I was finished with the 8th grade text by Christmas break. So when I came back to school in January he had a freshman algebra book ready for my use. I was so excited! Most of my way through high school my average in math was more than 100%. When my teacher offered extra credit, I did it. Give me more. I didn't do it for the grade, really. I did it because I wanted more work.
I had always seen this side of me as the logic. Following rules. Making everything equal. This was the programmer part of me. Also way I loved programming. I taught myself BASIC when I was 10 or 11 years old. I loved making the computer do what I told it to do.
But there was a different part of me. This was the creative part. I had always seen this part as almost fighting against my logical part. (Or at least at times it felt like it was.) I loved writing. I made up stories from the time I was little. In fact some of my first programs that I wrote in BASIC were "Choose your own adventure" stories that I had written. I liked to make things. I crochet and do many craft or sewing projects. But words were my greatest love. My stories were and are my life. They are something that I have to do.
So what does this have to do with ABC's and 123's? Well, as I was checking the papers that the 1st graders had turned in to me I started to think.
Somewhere along the line, I had discovered that (at least to me) math is not really a subject. Math is a language. In my high school chemistry class and then in my physics class I had worked this out. We use math all of the time. But when you really sit down and think about it. Math is just a part of everything else. Math is the language of science. It was after this that I started thinking that math might not be my favorite subject. Science might be. I just needed math to understand science.
And now here in 2014 I look at the things I am teaching to 6 and 7 year olds. But if you go back even a little farther than that...
What do we teach our toddlers? We teach them their ABC's and their 123's. If I started singing my ABC's in a room full of little ones most likely they would start to sing with me, even if they still did not know their letters by sight. And the same would go if I started to count. Just a couple of numbers in and the whole group would be counting with me.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
We join letters of our alphabet together to form words. Words placed together form sentences and stories.
We join numbers (and other mathematical symbols) together to form equations. We use equations to explain or manipulate things.
Both of these sets of symbols are actually used in very similar ways. But they are taught to us in schools in complete different ways. I wonder if this isn't why so many people feel they don't understand math. Right now, I see the 1st graders doing a spelling test as almost the exact thing as them doing a math facts test. But somewhere along the way this second language that we are teaching our children (math) gets jumbled up. Somewhere they start to see it as something they don't understand. Every part of our lives are filled with these two sets of symbols. And today, I am just wondering what we can do as teachers and parents to help our children to be fully bilingual.
So in closing, maybe my thoughts about the two parts of me always feeling so different has been wrong. I do love words. I love words made with my ABC',s and I love words made with my 123's.
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