As it is, I tutor in the math center at a local community college. There are many different kinds of people here from varying backgrounds and all at a different level of comprehension. Yet there is a single ability that could be valuable for them all to learn. This is humility.
The term humility is very general and I would like to clarify that I am referring to being humble with the math itself specifically. Learning mathematics is a personal struggle, potentially gratifying, which requires humility to the discipline itself for efficient progress. I came to experience this phenomenon while I was still in high school, and it was then that I began to understand the purest of joy, which is math itself...
I say that to study and to learn math, be it algebra, trigonometry, calculus, etc., one needs to approach the material in the right state of mind. This is one of patience, one of curiosity, and one of hope. I have found that seeking to humble oneself before the discipline truly brings these things. Surely when you do this then there is no room for frustration. This is not so difficult to do, but I do recommend that when attempting to study your math that you do so on a full stomach. Don't be hungry. Your brain needs the fuel to function.
When I watch someone get frustrated (and I have, hehe, many many times) I can see that this creates a mental block that becomes enormously more difficult to overcome then the learning of the math itself. Thus, if you want to experience the joys of being able to understand math concepts and really feeling the beauty of its purity, then you have to be humble. You cannot reject it without truly attempting to alter your perspective first.
You might be wondering what it looks like to be humble. I am thinking that it is more important to be able to understand what it FEELS like, but this is more difficult to describe. I am going to try and describe it what it looks like.
Someone who is humble accepts the material for what it is. There is no questioning of its usefulness, no negative reasoning of why one might be required to learn it.. there is only the math and the acknowledgement that it is what it is. Next, there is the humility to read and TRY to follow the logic. Humility is trying to learn, it is trying to understand. Someone might get caught up in a step and get frustrated because they cannot see where it goes. If they are not humble then they might curse the author of the textbook, glare at the nearest math department personnel, and give up. If they are exercising humility, and thus patience, then immediately some attempts to look at it from different angles may occur or some other method to at least make progress in the efforts to TRY. Being humble is all about doing the work, reading the textbook, and opening your mind to the possibilities of mathematics.
Ultimately, humility is simply having an open mind and hopeful curiosity to the cryptic secrets of the realm of mathematics.
One of the most gratifying experiences of my life was that first day when I could truly feel the greatness of learning math and all the wonderful physical and psychological implications. I associate this with my humble desire to know and to understand the nature of mathematics.
Don't forget! If you need some math help just visit my website!
www.algebraist.org
Elementary Algebra_Algebra_Trigonometry_Pre-calculus_Calculus_Differential Equations
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