Why gaining an admission in CMI is more difficult than IITJEE
- When investing in a learning platform/ program assess how much can be best assimilated by the child…Feeling challenged is fine, but a child feeling overwhelmed or inundated with resources is a completely different matter. As a parent you will often get to know the reality.
- Listen to your child, respect her. We do a great job of providing our children with love, affection, care, material comforts. But we rarely honour them. We often embarrass and shame, to discipline them. (We would possibly do away with 90% of parenting problems if we didn’t use shaming as a tool to raise children).
- Mathematics is one subject that often arouses maximum anxiety in parents and children alike. It is imperative that parents understand the reasons if they are to adequately support their children.
Firstly, Math is abstract and the ideas are tough to communicate and until the neural connection around the concept is formed the ideas can remain inaccessible for the young learner. Also, very often, the binary approach to learning Mathematics where either something is right or wrong can make it a daunting, discouraging journey. Unless Mathematics is a place for adventure we cannot nurture love for learning.
When children grow in their understanding of ideas, after refinement through activities, appropriate contextual discussions, arguments and the right, incisive questions; they soar in confidence. They become leaders in pursuit of learning and discovery rather than settle down into being obedient, subservient followers!
Leadership, questioning, logic, reasoning, discovery, confidence, challenging, debating, refuting, verifying, learning and benefitting from mistakes, correcting, unlearning, relearning…..these are some of the keywords to learning well.
Provide a safe platform for this, one where children can question, speak freely and make mistakes without risk/ fear of being judged or disapproved; without which real learning remains elusive and it becomes mere assimilation of facts.
It is not lack of proficiency in Math that affects people as much, but the belief that being bad at Math has serious consequences and that it reflects a low mental ability.
What is being bad at Math? For most it simply means being bad at tests conducted in a stressful, anxiety-provoking environment.
We look at people who can, however, handle such stuff with awe. We suspect they are endowed with extra intelligence and not just a different kind of interest.
A person, who lacks appreciation of art and music, neither sees himself nor is seen by others as lacking. He accepts himself and is accepted by others as simply a person who has interests elsewhere.
Why then, should people torment themselves or others for not having an interest or proficiency in Math? Why should it be seen as a failure of any kind?
