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We do Math because it's hard - by Sebastian Gutierrez

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2024-12-21 14:30:06

Kids Who Love Math is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We thought choosing a subject with a long history and a long path to becoming “good at it” would be a good “character-building” activity.

The idea was that it would be easier to learn perseverance at home than at school as a) it could be watched over and developed thoughtfully, b) the thing about learning through hard knocks is that hard knocks hurt, and c) they might never see a hard enough subject at school to learn perseverance.

The key for us was that if they hadn’t liked math, we would have kept looking for something that combined “hardness” with them “enjoying it.”

Teen Talk Barbie, Mattel, 1992. The actual quote seems to be, “Math class is tough. Want to go shopping? Okay, meet me at the mall.”

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