One of the very first assignments on the postgraduate teaching course was to draw up a big poster, titled "What is Maths?".
We were in groups of 4 people. As I sat around the table with my fellow student colleagues watching them draw, scribble, write, wonderful, loving comments about maths. I looked around and noticed the other groups of students writing the same things...'maths is great, maths is trig, maths is amazing, maths is blah blah..'
I stopped my student colleagues and told them, maths is hard, Maths is boring and hardly anyone even likes it apart from us. My fellow student colleagues gasped in horror and told me "NO" we can't put that. But I said this is the reality of maths.
Before we submitted our poster onto the wall for critique, I reluctantly put 'maths is hard, maths is boring and hardly anybody likes it' in the bottom corner.
Our poster was amongst 10 other posters. They were all colourful and bright with formulas and shapes. There were 4 lecturers standing and marking the posters. The head lecturer stood forward and said, 'They are all great, but there is only one that stands out and screams the true, reality of maths in the real world.'
She pointed to our poster and she pointed to my submission at the bottom of the page. She said as maths teachers we think and expect that everybody feels the same way about maths as we do. But the reality is, in the real world, nobody likes it, its hard and its boring. She said our poster hits the nail on the head! We won first prize.
I didn't complete the teaching course, however I do teach maths in the comfort of my own home and I love to write all things mathematical here www.math-problem-solving.com
So, when you get 5 minutes to spare pop over and view some of the math jokes and math cartoons. Hopefully, you will note that maths isn't all that boring after all!
