The “WhY” Scenic Overlook
WHen am i ever going to use this?
Math is the most hated subject taught in schools, across the world. Just look up “what is the most hated subject in school?” if you don’t believe me.
But why?
It has nothing to do with subject itself, I can promise you that.
It’s actually pretty simple: Students struggle with it, they decide hating it is easier than trying to understand it, they build into their DNA they just aren’t “math people”, they get traumatized from frustrated teachers, failed exams, and low grades, and then they go on into their lives, forever sharing their hatred of math with whoever will listen. Before any students even walks into a math class, they have, no doubt, already heard, countless times, just how hard and terrible and evil and useless and dumb and pointless math is.
But everyone is wrong. It’s not their fault, no. It’s not even the teacher’s fault, or the district’s fault, or the state’s fault, or even the education system as a whole.
It’s evolution’s fault.
Hating math is a result of humans losing their ability to be one with nature. To be present, to be patient, to be astonished. That’s what nature teaches us.
It’s what math is supposed to be teaching us.
So… why math? Why the nature theme? Why all the hiking metaphors, pictures of mountains, and spiritual connections?
Because math. is. everywhere.
We turned away from the freedom that nature provides, the joy in getting loss, the learning through the experience. We wanted a fast paced, get me to my destination in the fastest way possible, kind of life instead.
If you live life that way, you’ll miss out on some of the most beautiful, stunning, incredible things this world has to offer. You are blinded.
It’s the same with math.
We don’t look at the process as we rush through to finish the problem. We don’t pause on our way to the answer. We don’t enjoy the journey to the end of the page. We think of math as nothing more than numbers on a page, shortcuts to the end. But we miss out on so much more.
Math is just as magical as watching a sunrise over the mountain peaks, the ocean waves gently roll onto a sandy beach, a mighty bison roaming the endless grass fields, or the stars dancing over the desert sky.
There’s so much more to see.
It’s not just formulas, equations, graphs, functions, or numbers.
It’s Solving Problems.
It’s Collaboration
It’s Exploration
It’s Nature
It’s Inspiring
It’s Connection
It’s SCENIC
