Maths as a life skill and not merely as a course subject

Among various life skills that a child learns through the initial years, the attention paid to Maths is much lesser than what it ought to be. Indeed, Maths as a subject is taught at a very tender age during kindergarten, though not as a life skill. Maths has probably not been given the stature of life skill during schooling, which is where the gap exists.

I recall that in my engineering college, Mathematics was a part of the Humanities department, and not any of the science or engineering department. Even in the lower strata of society, to earn minimum livelihood, one needs elementary knowledge of maths. And that's where Maths stands to be recognized as a life skill and not merely a subject. It is a sad affair that the way Maths courses are structured, they expose a child to many lessons in Maths, but very little to build this skill as a way of life.

Lets take an example...When a child learns walking, what s/he learns is how to walk and not what it takes to walk. That's because parents know that learning to walk is more important than knowing what does it take to walk at that stage. Moreover, the child is so naturally engaged in learning to walk that the parent does not face resistance in making child to walk. Now lets look at Maths education. During primary school, a child is taught LCM, HCF, perimeter of a rectangle, prime numbers and such. Is the child being taught to feel the size of objects around ? E.g. the size of different rooms in the house can be easily compared by counting the number of floor tiles, and all you need to know is counting and not the knowledge of calculating area. In fact, the child will be thrilled to observe things around and feel them. This also generates curiosity to further explore different shapes and sizes. The need to learn geometry gets seeded, rather than first teaching the subject and then giving the examples. This is just the same as how a child feels the need to walk rather than first gaining the knowledge of what does it take to walk. That's in my opinion, Maths as a way of life !

To extrapolate it further, learning mathematical skill should be visualized in the same league as learning walking, speaking & reading a language, playing a sport etc. In subsequent articles, I would share more thoughts on how to nurture Maths as a life skill.  It is grossly demeaning to say that Maths is a difficult subject compared to other course subjects. Instead, one should say that Maths is difficult like mastering a sport or another life skill. That's when Maths will get its due honor and value in life.