I loved math in school, found out how little I knew trying to help my kids with theirs, and majored in math in college so I had the learn the new way, then took a 6 month vacation, had a stroke, so now I only know enough to quilt and I am fine with that. (My DD's helped me relearn it.)

AGREE! Math in my school days was so simple but the NEW MATH that my grandchildren are doing I can't make heads or tails out of. Some teachers let it go as long as you get the right answer but others really push it and make it frustrating.

I had to laugh.. I sometimes struggle with basic math (with an automatic duh after I solve it!LOL), but give me algebra, trig and I have the problem solved.
Just amazing how our brains perceive things and retain things in life ... just amazing !!

Either you do or you don't. I did until I hit three dimensional geometry and Calculus II in college. Then I "didn't" in a big way. Both of my children added a third dimension: "don't want to."

I insisted and they learned math. One is a data and data systems analyst and the other is a mechanical engineer. Everyone lived through the process but one has a horizontally split wooden spoon I gilded and framed over the word, "Believe." It is on his wall, over his desk. We will not discuss exactly how the split happened. The other child often tells me how glad she is that I was "hard as..." about "things."

If you can handle math and English as well as determined (read that last in all caps.), you can rule the world. Or at least eat regularly. In the meantime, use what you "do get" and enjoy it.

Pat

Oops, gotta go to Sam's. Kitty litter run.

DD is a physics major and she's taking Calculus 1 & 2 this summer! I don't envy her! DH balances the checkbook (I just write in the amounts, he does the calculations). I barely passed math in high school (D- in all the math classes I took) and hate math to this day! Thank goodness for calculators, husbands who are engineers and daughters who are physics majors! LOL

I have a son who loved math! In fact he had learned his multiplication tables before kindergarten! In grade school he was a peer tutor! Tutoring continued in High School, and in College he was working on becoming a math teacher. Things kin of went sideways and he got his degree in Music/arranging and composing. Now he's back in school finishing his degree in Math!

I never liked math and probably never will at this point but - I make myself do adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division with paper and pencil just to keep in practice. For math problems in quilting, I draw it out on paper. Works for me.

My cousin's daughter's math teacher also teaches science and Home-Ec. Small/medium sized town where those classes have 100% attendance rate. They are also involved in 4H,FHA, and FFA.

Math, science, and home-ec actually do go together.

My Mom frequently referred to her recipes as "formulas" -

There have been a lot of math related questions on this board - so that shows that there is/was a need/use for knowing math.

Calculators are helpful and useful - but one still needs to know which buttons to press to get a reasonable answer.