You can't force your child to like math. I don't really know if we have a right to get them to like anything. There is only one reasonably sure way they may become interested in this subject - and that is if you are interested in it. There are, to the disgust of the rest, some parents and kids who already love math. It is a fact of life though, that people of all ages and in great numbers hate the very thought of it, think there's something crook about it, lie awake at night and sweat over it, and can't understand how some get it and others don't. Perhaps you were one of those kids. You might remember coming home from school and all that nagging about doing your homework. As if that was going to improve the situation. You probably said "Why do I have to do this?" and they said "Because it's good for you, These are your best years, Get a good education and you'll thank us later, blah-blah..." It made little sense. And what about the double standard - they didn't bring work home, did they? yet you were made to do homework. If you hated math as a kid you would have been forced to watch pasty-faced nerds in class all day, getting things right and getting ahead. Didn't they have a life? Yet people said, why couldn't you be like Ronald, or Sharon, and try a little harder. Well if you weren't trying for all these years, what did they think you were doing? It was somewhat of a mystery. You knew the ones good at math didn't go home and do math right till they went to bed. You even played with them, on the weekends too, and you knew they had just as much free time as you. Then when you looked around you, you realised that most of your mates hated math too. What did that tell you? Was this just a freak class of retards or a typical class in a typical year? You might have then asked yourself, as I did, have kids always hated math? Is there another way? A better way? A way that doesn't have to make math a daily nightmare? Well, guess what - there is! Read on to find out more. *** Ken Ring grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, majoring in psychology at University of Auckland. He has since been a teacher, parent, lecturer, speech therapist, special needs tutor, author, actor, clown, and magician. He taught for 20 years, and in 1989 realised the power of magic as a teaching tool, so took a gamble, left teaching, and took his Mathman act on the road. His message that maths can be entertaining is now well-known in over 500 New Zealand schools and the presentation has the blessing of the Maths Education Advisory service, who often assist in setting up itineraries. In 1992 he received a QEII award for performing arts and between 1993-6 served three elected terms as president of the NZ Society of Magicians. Ken has also won awards within the international magic fraternity and is well known overseas as a prolific inventor of math-based tricks used by magicians.
