The REAL reason why your child is struggling in their high school math class…

Does your child ever say to you “I’m just not good at math”?

Does this sound familiar to you? Your child in high school cannot seem to get higher than an 80 (or low C) average in a non-honors level Math class. You feel like he/she is trying but get frustrated easily and they often give up quickly.  They might get “careless mistake” comments on assessments.  They tell you they hate math class.  You might feel that the teacher can’t connect or reach your child.  Your child will tell you they don’t like the  teacher’s style and they can’t understand how they present information on the board. They do well or average in other subjects except math (and perhaps Science).  You may have even tried private tutors.  The tutor will tell you they seem to understand what they went over but they still get poor grades on assessments.

I’m a father of 3, I’ve been teaching students of all High school levels for 16 years, and tutoring high school math for 30 years so what I’m about to describe from your is from my personal experience (and not from some formal university study).  This discussion is about an average ability student.  I want to be very clear that this article is full of generalizations that apply to many struggling students but not all.  For example, if your child has an IEP with an extreme learning disability, this article is not about your child (though some of the general problems and solutions I outline here may apply/help your child).  But also note that many students I’ve worked with after school (and many have IEPs) are very capable but are struggling because of what I discuss below.

Something happened somewhere between 5th and 7th grade…

Maybe your child was sick for a few months.  Perhaps the school went through four teachers in one year.  Maybe your child needed glasses and didn’t tell you. Maybe there were personal issues such as social problems or medical issues.  Maybe a new video game came out. But somewhere in early middle school your child missed some key math skill development.  Roughly 30% of the students I teach don’t have skills needed to take Algebra I when they start school in 9th grade. Here’s the issue: Learning Math is like learning a foreign language.  Imagine you have never taken Spanish before and you sit down in a Spanish 3 class.  The teacher never speaks English.  You may understand new material on the board (such as different forms of a verb) but you can’t understand what the teacher is saying for 40 minutes and you can’t even read most of the questions on your first quiz.

When I try to teach your child about slope and they don’t know how to plot a point (x,y) or don’t understand words such as “independent variable” or “axis”, it’s the same as you sitting in a Spanish 3 classroom with no prior Spanish course to them.  If you fail World History one year, you can still do pretty well in US History the following year if you suddenly feel motivated.  Not so in Math.  Once you get behind and fail to master some foundation skills, it takes twice as much work to catch up later.  And it gets worse every year.  Many students don’t catch up because they get it in their heads that they just aren’t good at math (and they feel they never will be).   I don’t want to over simplify issues students face with learning math (I’ll discuss other issues in future articles) but this is the one big reason that is often overlooked or misunderstood – partly because it is so unique to math and partly because it’s easier to place the blame somewhere else.

So what now?  Is there nothing my child can do?

I’m not trying to paint a dark picture, but knowing the problem is the first step to finding a solution.  In my high school, I spend a lot of time and effort motivating students to work.  Motivation is the number one key to success.  Very few of us at 15 years old wanted to learn math and looked forward to class (spoiler alert -I didn’t as a teenager).  So I’m not judging here at all. But in the end, the student has to want to succeed – and bad enough to do some (or most) of the suggestions I outline below.  In the end, I can stand on my head giving motivational speeches during class and give fun lessons – but if a student does not want it bad enough, there is nothing I (or you) can do.  And there is no easy out – it requires a lot of work that isn’t always fun and exciting.  Here are some strategies that I share with my students:

• Time and Practice.  I use a video game example here in my classes so I’ll share it with you.  Your son gets an online multiplayer game a week after his friends do and his first day playing is a miserable experience.  He is frustrated because he keeps losing.  He has the lowest score.  He claims everyone is cheating or the game itself is flawed.  But unlike math, he is motivated to get better and he plays it for many, many hours – almost to the point of complete frustration. Suddenly the controls seem second nature. He starts scoring, winning, and he forgets he was ever not good at the game.  Math is exactly the same way – except take away the motivation a typical teen has for playing video games.  It will take a lot of extra practice to catch up, more than any other class  – for the reasons I’ve outlined above.
• Go to extra help – often.  Read more about it here.
• Redo every problem you got wrong on every assessment until you get it right.  Work with a friend, tutor, or teacher.  Identify the middle school skill you never mastered.  Fractions (adding, dividing, etc.), negative numbers, plotting points, labeling axes, order of operations (PEMDAS), etc.  Then get some worksheets on those topics and practice those.
• Study properly for tests by practicing problems you got wrong from homework and comparing your work to the solutions you’ve written down (or were provided).  Go over anything you still can’t figure out with your teacher after school.
• Watch videos on youtube!  Always search on your topic but include “Algebra” and “Math” as well.  Find the video lesson on your topic (say “dividing fractions) and then pause the video as soon as the author writes down a problem.  Try the problem in your notebook and then press play again.  Compare your work and learn from your mistakes.  Rinse and repeat!