Had a friend with an 8 year old that was "struggling" with "math". They were just into multiplication and he couldn't figure out why. I asked to see some of the homework. It was odd because the kid got alot of them right, but occasionally would get one wrong, and not in any real obvious way. He'd get 3 x 7 but later would miss 7 x 3, strange stuff like that. I asked the kid about it and he said he could remember 3 x 7 but couldn't remember 7 x 3. About then I got suspicious. He kept referring to remembering his "times tables".
I asked him if he knew why we said "times", as in 3 times 7. He didn't know. So I explained that multiplication, ALL multiplication was merely repetitive addition. 3 times 7 merely meant "add 7 + 7 + 7", ie add 7 three "times". You'd thought I had just explained general relativity. "Oh, I can do THAT. Why do they make it so complicated". About then I explained that it made multiplying really large numbers much easier. Yeah, you can add 7 "three times", but now add 24, 231 times. Could take you a while. Multiplication makes it faster and easier.
He got that. It now "made sense". I did explain to him that he could now "check" his answers, even when taking a test. Next time he was asked to solve a multiplication problem, write down the answer, and then "check" it by doing the addition if he was unsure. I had to chuckle when he asked me if that was okay or if that was cheating.
I've helped alot of people over the years with various parts of math. I've never really found anyone that was "bad" at math. There will always be people who are "better" at it. But if I get a willing student and just a small bit of time, I can usually find whatever stumbling block is confusing them. 9 times out of 10 they've found someway to make something simple, very complicated.
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