Reply #14: May well have been the teacher. [View All]

Algebra is very different kind of reasoning - kids are (or can be) ready for that pretty early. It's lots of fun, but a lot of teachers make it really hard (or can only see one strict order of steps to follow to finish a problem, so when you don't do the steps in the order the teacher expects s/he makes you start over, and that's no fun). If you get a teacher who can see where your are and nudge you to a step that moves you forward (even if it isn't the path s/he would have followed) you gain a lot of confidence and eventually learn a more efficient set of steps on your own.

It's the geometry which a lot of brains just aren't mature enough to handle in middle school.

Geometry is much more creative kind of analysis - you pretty much have to be able to work from both ends toward the middle. It's much harder to coach because no matter how far off the most direct path you get in algebra, a skilled teacher can always suggest a step that will move you closer to the solution. In geometry, it is sort of like starting at the base of a tree trunk, thinking through all of the paths you could take from there to the tip of each branch by applying all the rules you know, visualizing which of the many branch paths you could follow that will lead you to a branch tip that touches a branch of a tree adjacent to the one you are on, leaping across, and working your way back down the adjacent trunk. If you crawl out on the wrong branch, on the opposite side of the tree from where you need to be, it's pretty much impossible for even the best teacher me to do anything other than tell you to ignore the last big chunk of work you did and start back very near the bottom of the trunk. You really have to be able two visualize where you will be several branch junctions up the tree to visualize from the bottom of the trunk which of the many branches you could take will end up close enough to make the leap.

Glad you finally came to love algebra. I wish the same for my very mathematically talented daughter (much more inherently talented than than I was - and I have two math degrees), who currently doesn't like math very much. (Well, not albegra, she's a few years past that, I'll settle for liking DifEQ)