From a very early age, I have had a deep love of mathematics. This is a hard thing to explain to people who have hated math all of their lives, and I can certainly understand why. As both a tutor and a student, I have grown accustomed to watching math be explained as a series of formulas to be memorized and plugged into a calculator. The actual substance of what’s going on is never explained, and when the student understandably becomes confused, they are met with poor grades, low self-esteem, and no adequate explanation of why they are getting problems wrong. If this was how I learned math, I would hate it too.

That was not how I learned math, and it is not how I teach math. I teach students the underlying logical connections between what they are doing and why. In other words, students learn to understand what the problem is asking and why a particular strategy would rationally produce the desired answer. This is crucial. When I do this, I am frequently met with eyes suddenly lighting up with understanding, a long drawn out ‘Oh!’, and the common question “Why didn’t my teacher just explain it like that?” Those moments are my favorite part of this job.

When students learn math this way, they are not only put in a better position for their current class but for all classes to come. I cannot count how many times students have told me they forgot everything they had learned in their last class. The reality is that cramming flashcards the night before an exam may help a student pass for now, but that information quickly evaporates. Building a base of true comprehension sets up students for success both now and in the classes to come.