Why is math so hard?

Math isn't hard. We are just taught to think that way.

You cannot be "bad at math from birth" or "naturally bad", you just were not taught correctly in the first place. In the world's (specifically the United States) school system, math is taught using processes. This means that you are given a problem X that has solution Y. You are then taught how to solve similar problems to X and come up with answers that are similar to Y. A great example of this is the order of operations. The famous acronym for order of operations is PEMDAS (I like the GOMA acronym better, but that will be covered in a separated post). This is designed to help students learn how to solve problems like 1+3/4. Reading from left-to-right gives the answer of 1, but using the order of operations, you get 1.75. And this is the problem in our schooling system. How do you teach kids to read a book from left-to-right, but read a math problem by jumping around? The simple answer is: "You can't". High school students, college graduates, and senior citizens all can mix this order up sometimes. Its not because they are bad at math, its because the school system cannot create a way that works for all kids to remember these concepts.

So how do you fix this problem?

Unlike last time, there is a simple answer to this, which I will get into later. But first lets go over why people think they are bad at math, and problems in general. When faced with a problem in life, most of the population of the world will immediately give up on a solution and ask for help. While this is not a bad thing, it is definitely not a good thing. The other percentage of the population would do something much different. They would try to solve the problem. Now, at this point, this percentage is split into two more groups. The first group tries many different methods until one works, or asks for help if none do. Alright, this is a step up from our last group, but the third group knows exactly how to solve this problem. This third group will try until their methods do not work, and then combine those methods until those work. If these methods do not work, then the individual will figure out why they do not work and do research on what could work, and then ask for help as a worst-case-scenario. This is important because this is a skill that is learned, not that is naturally acquired. These people can show up to the battle with random items, and make a weapon of mass destruction while their enemy with the same item hides in fear (sorry for the cruel metaphor). So to recap, here is an example where these three groups are visible:

Three men walk up to a bridge with a troll blocking the path. The men walk up to the troll and ask politely for it to move out of the way so they can cross. The troll refuses, but states that access will be granted to anyone if he is asleep. The three men retreat to think of a plan, however, each cannot agree with the others, so they go their separate ways. The first man walks back up to the troll and tries to negotiate with him to be granted access. After an hour, he gives up and asks the second man for help. Fortunately, the second man has a plan: wait until nighttime. So the men wait until it is night, and continue waiting until the next morning. To their surprise, the troll does not sleep. The second man then has a second idea to see if the troll sleeps at certain times. Hours pass with no luck. The men give up and go to ask the third man for help. However, they cannot find the third man, for he has crossed the bridge already. While the first two men were going about their plans, the third man noticed them not succeeding, and decided to back a sleeping potion out of herbs and plants in the surrounding area. He went to the local alchemist to get a potion brewing book, and brewed the potion to make the troll sleep temporarily.

This story is a good example of these three groups: there are those who try once and give up, there are those who try many times and give up, and there are those who analyze the situation and previous attempts to research and create a solution to the problem before them. Once again, this is not a skill that is naturally acquired, it needs to be taught. This is how to fix the problem of non-problem solvers. Teach kids how to make methods to solve a problem, not how to use one of an arbitrary amount of previous methods to find a solution.