Mike Smith:
Fred, on our last program, you talked about why individual children might struggle in math. Although homeschoolers score better than the national average on all subjects, they tend to do better on verbal sections than on math. Now why is math harder, Fred?

Fred Worth:
Well, we talked last time about being able to do and understand mathematics, and those are obviously important here as well. But there are a couple of other things that are very important, and one of those is vocabulary.

Sometimes people tell me they feel like mathematics is a foreign language, and I tell them they’re exactly right. In order to do mathematics, we are teaching our children a new language, with its own vocabulary and grammar. A particularly vital portion of this is learning the proper vocabulary and using it. In the kitchen, cup doesn’t just mean any open-topped cylinder. You would want your surgeon to know the difference between your appendix and your spleen. So I would strongly urge parents, from the very beginning of their homeschooling, to use the right words. Talk about the numerator and denominator of a fraction, not the top and bottom. If we’re dividing both sides of an equation by 7, say dividing both sides by 7, not cancel the 7s. There are numerous mathematical errors that can be avoided if students simply learn the right words.

Mike:
Thanks for joining me today, Fred. Next time, we’ll explore ways to address this issue. And until then, I’m Mike Smith.