Maths is interesting

Many pupils think of Maths as being boring. They are taught routines that they have to remember and then recall, and use to solve abstract problems. If a maths pupil thinks that there is a lot to remember, then they are not learning maths properly. It is of paramount importance that the pupil realises that maths is all about reasoning and applying logic. There are a few rules that they have to remember, but these are indeed few and far between, everything else is reasoning and logic. In my many years of teaching, I have found that the lower achieving pupils have difficulty with applying reasoning and logic to the problems that they're given. They have got through maths by memorising routines and then using them, and as a result they are underpracticed at reasoning and logic. Once they start to approach their maths from this perspective they often blossom as if a revelation has opened up before them, and what was hard has suddenly become much easier.