Those two words always sent a shiver down my neck when it came to testing. I saw word problems as the trick of all trick questions. There were always loop holes to get caught up on (why can't I just see things as clear black and white?!), or there was extra info to throw you off the trail, and you always had to include some sort of description word at the end. The answer couldn't just be 8, it HAD to be 8 inches or whatever else it was measuring. It always felt like a let-down to get the computations right but then not get credit for leaving off the word. Ah, the anxiety of education.
Last Friday Sawyer participated with some kids from his school in a math contest. What a fine group of mathletes! They practiced for several weeks after school and during recess. They were excited and ready. But then as the instructions were being given, the administrator talked about all those gray areas that always gave me fits. "Fractions must be reduced. If it asks for seconds, make sure you don't answer in minutes." I commented to the advisor that seemed kind of intense (MY issues coming to the surface) and she calmly replied, "They are ready." OK, let the math begin.
Later in the college bowl section (a team of 4 buzzing in fast), Sawyer answered a couple incorrectly and began to shut down right in front of us. It was so sad. I KNEW I wasn't the only kid around who gets anxious with word problems. How nice to know I passed it along to my offspring.
No need to worry about Sawyer, the school won blue ribbons and he hardly remembers the anxiety (nice selectivity.) But we have been thinking of life in word problems since then.
Here's a fine example:
Q. Avy, Sam and Toril spent 2 hours at the Oregon Food Bank Thursday evening. They scooped oatmeal from a huge bin into smaller bags and put them into boxes for distribution. Each box holds 10 bags of oatmeal, 10 recipe cards and newspaper (on the top and bottom for protection.) If together, they filled 10 boxes of food, how many bags of oatmeal are ready for others to eat?
A. Enough to help my daughter want to return every week and help others.
Some people may see math/life black and white, but I LOVE the GRAY! Thanks for a wonderful experience Sam and Toril!
1 comment:
Lucky Avy! That's a great life experience for her to have at a young age.
And congrats to the blue ribbon boy! But, ah, the anxiety of it all. (And hooray for selective memory, in the positive direction. That's a good life skill in and of itself.)
Post a Comment