It is high time, we realise that our mode of education spells fear and through fear, students will rote only but not be educated. To LEARN, one needs to love and have the passion or the environment should be such that students start loving their subjects and each one of them become a ‘Phunsukh Wangdu’ and in turn contribute to the society HUGELY.
Mathematics is challenging yet most interesting subject for every school student. Whether feared or loved, Math plays an essential role in everyone’s life as it is applied every day from calculating simple grocery bills to managing big budgets and businesses. In India, December 22 is celebrated as National Mathematics Day. The declaration was made by former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh during the inaugural ceremony of the celebrations to mark 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan in 2012. Year 2012 was celebrated as the National Mathematics Year.
BEAT PHOBIA WITH PRACTICE
Some children have difficulty in mathematics because of many reasons. Many a times, it is pressure to study and score in the subject that leads to anxiety and lack of interest. Parents can do the following for helping students in dealing with mathematics phobia.
■ Find educators that use practical examples and make math easy
■ Release children from pressure to score in mathematics
■ Ensure that child practices math in books and real life problems
■ Work on boosting confidence of child
-Psychiatrist Dr Smita Agrawal
ABOUT MATH GENIUS RAMANUJAN
Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December, 1887, and died on April 26, 1920. Though he had almost no formal training in mathematics, he made substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions, including solutions to mathematical problems considered to be unsolvable. He independently compiled nearly 3,900 results (mostly identities and equations).
OVERCOMING FEAR
Some professionals who once feared mathematics shared their tale talking about how tables turned. “I hated mathematics because that was a subject everyone forced me to study everyday,” businessman Ritesh Gera said. His fear and anger turned to love for numbers when he went to college. “I enjoyed numbers when I did it for my interest and not forced to,” Gera said. “There was a phase in my life when I learned algebra for the first time, it scared me,” IT professional Kartik Sharma said. He eventually overcame fear when an educator made it easy for him through practical examples.
