I love maths. I don't do enough any more and at the heart of my love for maths is my love of physics and my natural aptitude for pattern spotting. I am also married to someone who doesn't like maths in a "Panic and run for the hills" kind of way.
I'm also a father with two young children. I'm hugely concerned that they don't see what I view as a beautiful language as a horror to run from.
Jo Boaler's book is a great little introduction and guide to why some people find maths so traumatising and how we can help ourselves and young people avoid developing this relationship. Sure some of it is about studies say this and that, some of it is about bad teaching at school but a lot of this book is about how to get it right.
Boaler concentrates on resources, on how to make learning a complex and fascinating subject interesting, accessible and meaningful for children. It has practical tools and approaches which I'm hoping even my wife can look at and not feel daunted by. I could go on as to why having an ease with maths is so important but I won't; that should be a post in and of itself.
However, I will say this; I have already recommended this book to everyone I know with children. I have also recommended it to people I know who are smart but hate and/or fear maths in their everyday lives.
Why? Because Jo Boaler captures something about turning maths from the bogey man into a best friend and that's a relationship I wish everyone had.
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