Can I succeed at anything without math?

Question

I am home-schooled, and I have been told by many that I am very intelligent. A genius, even. I am an excellent writer, a wonderful strategist, and basically very good at everything my mother gives me… Except math.

My mother tells me that I will not be able to achieve anything if I do not learn math. But, I do not think that I ‘can’ learn math. It is like, my mother will give me something, like adding fractions, and it will take me hours to finish, and my mother will have to tell me how to solve the problems repeatedly. And after I learn what she is trying to teach me, I just forget... It is funny. I have been able to write and read on a college grade level since before I turned ten, but I still have trouble with my times tables.

So, does my inability to do math mean that I will never go anywhere with my life?

Answer 1

Don't let anyone (including your mother) tell you that you will never go anywhere with your life. That depends completely upon YOU. You can live a successful and happy life without math beyond the basics. And I seriously doubt that you "can't learn math." It may be necessary for you to learn it in a different way. You probably already use math in your life, but because it isn't coming from a book, you don't think of it as "math." And as far as balancing a checkbook goes, there are these wonderful new inventions out called "calculators." Lots of people use them; even those with good math skills.

If you are driven to succeed, set goals for yourself, and work toward them, a lack of math skills is not going to hold you back. Unless, of course, your goal is a career in the math/science field, which is doubtful anyway. You are the only one who can stand in the way of your own success.

Answer 2

Yes, you will succeed. Be patient. Maybe you will have a better understanding of the math problems if your mother would show you each problem from the beginning and take you step by step as to how the problem should be done rather than telling you. Then you will have a better understanding as to what you are doing. You should stay on fractions until you know you've got it before going on to another math problem. You'll just keep getting more confused. Good Luck scholar.

Answer 3

No, it does not mean you will never go anywhere...but it may well present challenges for you.

Perhaps a math tutor would help? Different people learn in different ways, and different people teach in different ways. It may not be that you cannot learn math, but that your mother's method of teaching it isn't well suited to how you need it presented to learn it.

There will be few things in life you'll encounter where math doesn't come into play...some of the basics being money (making purchases, balancing your checkbook), cooking (converting measurements or increasing recipes), sewing (measurements), travel (miles and gas mileage), fitness (calories consumed and burned), home decorating (measurements), and the list could go on.

You may not need calculus or trig, but basic math skills are quite useful, if not necessary.

Answer 4

Many young women, and men for that matter, feel they can not learn math, simply because they have not mastered the foundation of math, before they proceed to the next step. Your mother is right.

Some of the ways we use math are to calculate the rhythms or our bodies; such as, blood pressure, heart rate, and calories. We also use math when we make purchases, like financing cars, or purchasing insurance, or buying a home. Knowing square footage will help us to know how much carpeting is needed to furnish a room, or how many bathroom tiles to buy.

Math also help us not to get lost when we know how to measure distance, and mileage, and gas mileage. When we sing or when we dance, we are using math. The key to math is to remember that it is a building block, and that each step is dependent upon the first. Even people who can not read are able to learn math.

Now, let's get started and see if we can't make a mathematician, or engineer, or doctor out of you! Begin by starting over. This is not a race so therefore, take it slow! Start with the numbers 1 through 9 and continuously add them in your head until you remember them without fail. Do not say 1 plus/and 7. Say 1 7 8. Say 5 9 14. After you have learned this, do the same for subtraction. The smaller number is subtracted from the larger number. Say 6 4 2. Say 9 5 4. (By omitting plus/and you are gaining speed. Do not worry about division or multiplication right now. The focus now is on addition and subtraction).

Everyone does not learn at the same rate of speed, and it is finding that rate of speed at which YOU learn that is crucial to your learning any math problem that is presented to you. I am going to stop right here and suggest to you the following sites, so that you can gain RESPECT FOR MATH. Please, sit with your mother and experience what Albert Einstein and others like him have gained from knowing math.

YOU CAN AND WILL LEARN MATH!

(The following is an excerpt by Robert Recorde and it is taken from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/. Go to the middle column and scroll to Ancestors of E=MC2. Click on the large picture of Albert Einstein. After reading then click next and proceed to the third one.)

Birth of the equal sign
Major typographic symbols were locked in rather quickly once printing began at the end of the 1400s. Texts began to be filled in with the old "?" symbols and the newer "!" marks. Minor symbols took longer.

Through the mid-1500s there was still space for entrepreneurs to set their own mark by establishing minor symbols. In 1543, Robert Recorde, a pioneering mathematics textbook writer in Great Britain, tried to promote the new-style "+" sign, which had achieved some popularity on the Continent. The book he wrote didn't make his fortune, so in the next decade he tried again, this time with a symbol, which probably had roots in old logic texts, that he was sure would take off.

In the best style of advertising hype everywhere, he even tried to give it a unique selling point: "...And to avoide the tediouse repetition of these woordes: is equalle to: I will sette ... a pair of parallels, or ... lines of one lengthe, thus: ====== bicause noe .2. thynges, can be moare equalle..."

It doesn't seem that Recorde gained from his innovation, for it remained in bitter competition with the equally plausible "//" and even with the bizarre "[;" symbol, which the powerful German printing houses were trying to promote. But by Shakespeare's time a generation later Recorde's victory was finally certain.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/wisdom.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/ancestors.html

Answer 5

Hell no, but it does limit your ability. Even a genius gets limitations if they cannot do math. Most of the sciences will be beyond your grasp for instance. So try harder, make it relevant, it's said that women are worse at math then men to begin with, but with a little extra work they catch up. I'm not sure that just living up to that general remark is worthy of a genius, so get your math.

Also, your mom is maybe not explaining it well enough, ask her for a math tutor, it should make it all super easy.

Answer 6

Hey, that's my problem too. I do exceptionally well in every academic area except math. I took the Woodcock Johnson Test, and my score was very high, except in the math section. You are probably more right-brained than left brained, and that is okay. Most people only need to know the basic forms of math for taxes and things like that, you don't need to know calculus in order to become a librarian, for example, or a botanist. What do you like to do? That's the question you should be asking yourself.

Answer 7

Yeah! there are many things that you can do without math, specially in the Social Branch, you could be Sales manager, or a Teacher of some sort...
anything out of the Science branch... there are many things that are paid well and do not require math..

Or you could be a great writer!! that pays very good. there are many things out there.
My mother does not know much about math either, and she is able to give us a good life as a single mother..
oh, and being a sales manager does not require much math, just basic stuff, subtraction and addition.really...

Answer 8

Mathematics are involved in every single aspect of life.
Difficult for me to say if you will go nowhere in life without learning math, as my professional life has always completely revolved around it. Personally, I'm analytical when it comes to money and such, so again I use math with everything.

Sorry if that's not much help.

Answer 9

well you'll always have math no matter what. Like in your bills and all.So yeah your going to go nowhere with out math

Answer 10

You can probably be a translator if you are bilingual (or multilingual). Or, you can go into sciences.