It is quite common that parents, whose kids have been with us for quite some time, told us that not only their kids improve their math grade at school, but their performance in other subjects also improved! And more interestingly, it’s not impacting just STEM related subjects but also non-STEM subjects like social studies.

How come?

Mathematics is a fundamental part of human thought and logic, and it’s a tool to understand what’s happening around us, including how nature works (such as the Fibonacci pattern). Without realizing it, when a student works on their math like multi digit multiplication, long division, and all that tedious stuff that needs concentration and focus, they train themselves to build mental discipline, logical reasoning and mental rigor. They learn that making mistakes is ok, that it is part of learning; knowing what mistake they make and correcting it is the way to improve themselves.

Taught math correctly by focusing on conceptual understanding and not on procedural steps and rote memorization, they will learn to see big pictures when they see problems; they can easily see the forests for the trees, and are able to break down problems so that they can solve them strategically.

And when they are more confident in tackling numbers, math becomes not so frightening anymore, and this “I can do anything” mindset will make it easier for them to work on other subjects. 

Besides having a positive impact on their mentality and logical reasoning, mathematical knowledge encourages students to understand the content of other school subjects such as science, social studies, and even music and art. It helps in understanding chemistry and physics, making sense out of historical or research data or in social studies, creating impressive arts using geometrical shapes & pieces, playing with rhythms in music, etc.

So, next time your child insists that they don’t need math in their life, make them understand that math is so relevant to a wide variety of academic subjects. A student who does poorly in math could end up struggling in other subjects, and their career options in the future will be limited if they don’t have a solid foundation in math.