Pupils should develop confidence in their own abilities

Perseverance is a quality that is not prized as much as it should be. Today, we live in a society that seeks instant gratification. If something can’t be completed immediately it’s not worth doing, it should be abandoned, in favour of something that can. Another word that isn’t used as commonly as heretofore, is “endeavour”. In our culture of immediacy, why should anyone be expected to struggle on to achieve a long term goal? This is what has bred the cult of television talent and reality TV shows. Why strive when one can gain celebrity and fortune by appearing on the television. Why learn maths, when all you have to do is learn to sing (not necessarily particularly well) or behave outrageously? In life, two of the keys to success are persistence and endeavour, but these are not properly acknowledged either in popular culture or at school. In English schools the government has placed a timetable that says what should be taught by what age, and the schools are running to keep up with the timetable, for should they fail to do so they are adjudged to be failing. This forced pace at which the topics within maths must be covered, removes the time required to allow pupils to practice persistence, for them to learn that they can master a maths topic themselves by repeated application. It also removes the opportunity for pupils to practice endeavour, for their teachers, fearful of criticism themselves and the consequences that such criticism might have on their careers and livelihoods, meet their targets by spoon feeding their pupils rather than by requiring them to think for themselves. At Puppet Maths, we encourage children to think for themselves. We want them to find new ways to approach problems, to learn by trial and error, to succeed by their own efforts so that they learn confidence in their own abilities to succeed at maths.