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Having Trouble With Learning Math?

Having Trouble With Learning Math?

A women working at a Starbucks told me that her son was having problems with math.  I said I would try to find a book for her son that might help.   I did find a number of Internet book recommendations but none of the local used book stores or new book sellers had the books I was looking for.  My wife wanted to go to Barnes and Noble Book Store and I took that opportunity to look for what they had in stock.  They only had one book in the kids section which seemed to have good reviews and I purchased it.  I then went into the adult math book section and by chance found an astonishing math book called “Help Your Kids With Math“.    When I was very young my parents purchased an electronic theory book set that instructed the reader mainly with pictures.  Those books helped me become self taught in electronics.  I had never seen a math book teaching the reader by using images like this book.  Even though this book says it is aimed at teaching kids, I bought me a copy.  A few days later I purchased another copy for the Starbucks barista’s son.  I slipped in a letter to this by which I will show you below:

Dear xxxxx,

Your mom told me you are having difficulty in math.  I am giving you this book in the hope it helps you comprehend math in a new visual way.  Some tricks I have learned about problem solving I will now share with you.  First, do not give up.  Second, walk around the problem to view it from a different perspective.  Third, try to understand the problem using different methods.  Fourth, when facing a near impossible problem, turn it into a challenge, a contest.

Some times just going to school and listening to a teacher and reading a school text book will fail you.  Some times you need to seek out a different method if you are not understanding the material.

I am giving you this book because it offers you all of these solutions.  This book shows you all of math visually.  The book should look scary to you beyond the first few chapters.  This is because it shows you the whole math path and you are at its beginning.  Use it as a reference book.  It should help you all your life to “see” math relationships.  I have never seen this method used for math before.  I am really impressed with this book.   I have my own copy.

Why study math?  Math is a language; it is a method; it is a tool; it is a long struggle; it is tough to learn and it offers wonderful rewards when you understand it.  Because it is tough to learn, it can determine how successful you might be in some professions and how much money you will make.  For example, if you can comprehend trigonometry, you can better become a computer game designer.  If you pass calculus you can get a degree in business, engineering and science making $50,000 to $100,000 or more.  If you go further and become an actuary, you should make $150,000 to $250,000 a year.

As you can see, the math path has more rewards the further you can travel its length.  I do hope this book helps you get further.   Please remember not to give up.

Update:  3-6-19:  The web link needed to be replaced because I got a “404 Not Found”.
A Lawyer’s Lesson

A Lawyer’s Lesson

I had a rather long chat with a lawyer who I will call Mr. C.  He has partially retired from plaintive law in Southern California, United States.  I had seen him at the gym for years but had never got to talk to him very deeply.  This day, December 29, 2015, he shared with me his past history briefly.  His family was Italian and he lived in an Italian community in Rhode Island, United States.  Most of the community members had not gone to college. His family did not expect him to go beyond high school.  He did get good grades in school.  No one ever talked to him to suggest that he go on to college.  He decided to join the high school football team and started out being on the first team.  As the season progressed he failed to get better and slowly receded into being played less.  Next year he made the first team again.  His message was that for whatever reason he never gave up.    He enlisted into the Navy ROTC and asked that his summer cruse be in Europe.  He was assigned to Sicily, Italy.  He had not yet moved to Southern California but his trip to Sicily with its wonderful weather would soon be a measure by which he favored Southern California.  His sister and her husband lived in Southern California and he soon moved there.  He got a job at an insurance company.  The insurance company would pay for any schooling that related to the type of work they were doing.   For whatever reason Mr C decided to take law classes.  He was a very shy person, sitting at the back of the class and afraid to participate in class.  He got his law degree and was scared to stand before a jury to argue his first case.  He put together two arguments that he had to present to the jury in his first trail.  One argument was very short in case he felt too scared and just wanted to end his presentation early.  The second argument notes was much longer.  On the day of the trial he went on for about twenty minutes giving his arguments to the jury.  I sensed that he was rather proud that he chose to stand up so long to give his client the better delivery.  He had a point in telling me his story.  He told me that he never gives up.  I told him that I really appreciate his lesson because I too had practice this and I think, for me, it was out of fear.  I was always fearful that I would fail.  For me failure might mean loosing my job or less income.  When I would walk into a video control room and had to repair a system failure I had learned to just keep at it, never quit.  I also learned to attack any problem by first analyzing all the possible possibilities and attacking each one in order of probability.  I liken this to circling or walking around a problem.  Some times I actually do walk around to get different views of what I have to deal with.  I even extend this to my technology studies.  I might get a book on a subject I am interested in but if it is difficult to understand, I will buy the item to use it, put together a kit if appropriate, look for other learning options so that I effectively circle the problem and attack it from multiple views.  I think this is because I am not too bright and I need to get the subject into my brain by multiple means.  This article, I hope, sends you a lesson.  Try to not give up.  Your self esteem and what other people think of you and possible job security depend upon this.  It is not bad to be afraid some times.  Sometimes fear is a motivator.  For me it definitely is.

Terrific New Way To Get Electronics Training.

Terrific New Way To Get Electronics Training.

If you wish to get a good education in the field of electronics I would suggest that you first investigate whether a nearby junior college offers this subject and then try to determine how good a job they do at teaching it.  A good indication is to have them tell you how many of their AA degree graduates get jobs in the field.  If you have the money, time and perseverance to take electronic engineering at a college or university that is the best path by far.  Any education institution you consider should be investigated first as to how competent they are.  Please do not assume that all colleges and universities do the same level work.  Some are better than others.  Be aware of private technical colleges as many have problems.   For those people who do not want to enter any regimen for learning electronics but take a more casual approach and just want to self learn the subject there are  a number of options.  I must tell you that holding a degree when looking for a job is very important.  I must confess that I taught myself electronics before graduating from high school.  I did this by reading some amazing books on the subject, building Eico and Heathkit projects.  My parents also fed my passion by handing me home appliances that were broken and gave me a chance to fix them.  I then went on to a junior college and took electronics training for one year before switching to the study of Sociology at a state university.  While in college I joined the Navy Reserves and was sent to Memphis Tennessee for electronics training.  My first good job in electronics was taking care of a television studio, control rooms for audio and TV and edit bays.  I was self taught in video and audio.  I did not have, and still do not have a degree in electronics.  Do not follow my example.  Try to get, at the very least, an AA degree.

I have a library of electronic, video audio, cine, lighting and related fields that is pretty impressive.  I also have a passion for knowledge that covers history, philosophy, science and photography.  For the longest time I have subscribed to The Great Courses, a business that provides education packages in DVD or Internet download.  I have found their products to be excellent.  I wait for their sales where you can really save money.  Just about all their courses are taught by some of the best college and university faculty.  Some courses are better than others and there are rankings showing in their catalog.  I always read the reviews before buying any course.  July 2014 I was shocked to find that they offered an electronics course.  Just about all their courses are humanities and they offer almost no technology titles.  This electronics course was brand new so there were no reviews to help me decide whether to buy it or not.  It was discounted in the catalog and was on sale at a terrific price.  I decided to break my rule of evaluating the review, which there were none being such a new product, and purchased the course.  I did do an Internet search for the professor teaching the course, Richard Wolfson, and the search was quite impressive which tipped the scales for my decision.  Because I purchased a digital download I was able to get the course pretty quickly and copied each lesson into my laptop and Apple Airport Extreme hard drive.  Let me tell you that this course really made my socks roll up and down.  I am really, really, impressed.  Wolfson comes across as having a passion for the subject.  He is really knows what he is talking about.  The lesson progression from basic toward the more complex is excellent to the point of perfect.  As a result, the course outline is very well laid out.

In any technical school you must have a lab segment where you are given lessons where you need to make circuits with components that make sense and then take measurements and report your findings.  This task of going into a lab as part of your education was a complete surprise to me as I figured that this course could not offer this part of the normal education process.  The lab lecture part was a shock for me to view.  It seemed to work.  Another shock for me is this is not a passive only viewing experience but you are expected to actually perform the experiments on your own.  I must tell you that you will be required to go out and buy some simple electronic components but that in itself should be part of your education.  Going into an electronics parts house is definitely an education.  There are even short quizzes thrown in where you are expected to pause your viewing of the lesson and perform some calculation or duty and record your results.  I really recommend this course.  At the price I paid, it was a steal.   If you take this course, you should gain a pretty darn good electronics training.  Just pay particular attention to the safety issues so you do not get hurt.

Understanding Modern Electronics with Professor Richard Wolfson, Course number 1162.