Math was not my friend during elementary school years. In fact, a lot of times it was my enemy! Math just did not make a lot of sense to me and as the academic challenges increased so did my level of frustation. I believe the biggest reason for my math struggles was that I approached problems in a different way than what was being taught. When the approach made sense to me, I did OK.
For example, I did really well in addition but I did not have a traditional problem solving approach. The classroom approach was to count/add number by number. 7+8 would be solved by starting with 8 and counting, 9,10,11,12, etc. However, I discovered an approach that seemed easier and made a lot more sense to me! I already knew that if I added 10 to any number, the first digit would remain the same, the second would increase by one. So naturally if I added 10 to 7, it would be 17. Next, I knew that subtracting 10-8 would be 2. So once I had 17 in my mind, I just subtracted 2 and got 15! Easy for me? Yes. Traditional? Perhaps not, but it worked for me!
Even today I can count from 17 to 510 simply by adding 20 and subtracting 3. Again, I stress the importance of trying new strategies and approaching and individualizing education for the child even when it may be untraditional. Because when an approach finally does click for a child, it feels fantastic!
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Learning more about your history and struggles makes me appreciate even more the Claire I knew as a roommate. In everyday life, you were so quick to smile and laugh about things-- a true optimist. I never knew how difficult some of the details of life were for you; I just knew you didn't take them for granted. You always had a delightful enthusiasm for accomplishment.
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