conuly

I favor the teaching of arithmetic first and most importantly in terms of money, from how to make change and how many weeks' allowance will buy the new skates to how to figure whether or not a real-estate deal is sound and how to minimize your taxes if you win the lottery.

Children and teenagers have a keen interest in money, as who doesn't, right? Every aspect of arithmetic, and a fair amount of algebra, may be taught in the context of money management. That's the math that all people actually use throughout their lives, and being good at it has clear and obvious advantages.

The other math that people actually use and need is measurement, and what they mostly need to measure is ingredients for cooking, materials for building, travel time and expense, and property boundaries. All of which directly relates to the money as well. So, if two people wanted to drive to Chicago, rent a truck there, load up a houseful of stuff and come back, how much would it cost, how long would it take, and what's the difference between staying in motels and eating in restaurants, and camping in state parks cooking your own food?

A person who can plan a budget for such a trip, taking into account all the different factors, is a person who knows enough math. A person who can't, is a person who doesn't, who's likely to have lifelong difficulties from not knowing how to use math to make good plans.

The easiest way to teach children about money is to help them earn some. The easiest way to teach them measurement math is to shop with them, cook with them, sew with them, build and fix stuff with them, give them the map and let them navigate on trips. Calculators are a convenience for those who have already solidly memorized their addition/subtraction and multiplication/division tables - and those do need to be memorized; there's no way around it; therefore using calculators before high school is counter-productive.

Unfortunately, in school math, what you get is math-on-paper, boring and frustrating story-problems about imaginary people buying paint and taking trips. It's not at all the same as buying your own paint and taking your own trip.

Note, too, that once a kid has successfully figured out how to change her room from dingy off-white to sunshine yellow, she will forever after know how it's done, and will not need a hundred more story-problems to reinforce the skills. That's the difference betwen abstract and hands-on learning: hands-on learning sticks.

For people who want more complicated math in their lives, there's also astronomy, navigation and ballistics, all of which have many fun and practical applications to engage the enquiring young mind.