The Meaning of Math

The Meaning of Math is a book intended to help teachers, parents, tutors, etc. teach basic math concepts to beginning students. Nearly 50 years ago the United States decided to abandon the teaching of conceptual math in favor of what was then called the "New Math". As a result, the math skills of our students have continually dropped until we are now among the most poorly educated mathematicians in the industrialized world. Recently, there has been a growing movement to return to teaching conceptual math. This book is just a beginning. It explains basic math concepts in simple, easy to understand language with examples drawn for everyday life. The hope is that students, and perhaps their teachers, will come to understand that math is a natural function of the human mind and that it can actually be fun to use. One of the more difficult subjects to teach is negative numbers. A great deal of time has been invested in creating a chapter about negative numbers using a more visual approach to the subject. The purpose is to help make the subject easier to relate to everyday experiences and, hopefully, easier to teach and learn. A good, solid understanding of the fundamental math concepts makes learning the more advanced areas of math much easier and enjoyable.