ANDY ZAHN: Back to school tips from THE MATH MAN

As you return to school keep a few truths in mind. You need to have a good attitude toward education, You have to make the effort to learn. The teachers and the school can’t learn for you, they can only teach, show and explain.

You need to come to school each day with everything you need such as your books, note book, pens and pencils, completed assignments, lunch or lunch money and computer if required. Be on time and pay attention in class and TO THE TEACHER. Read the material you are studying. Study the material. Ask questions. Put the ideas on paper and see how it all fits together. See how something new is like something you already know and how it’s different. A lot of times you need only remember the one idea such as horizontal. When you know it’s name is because of the horizon then vertical is the other way; up and down. Memorize rules and later, on an SAT you have the rules to fall back on.

Understand that the taxpayers pay a lot of money per year for each student’s education, as high as $10,000. Don’t let all that money go to waste. Also remember that after high school most learning will be at your expense so take advantage of the free ride. I was watching Dr. Carson and he rose to be the top brain surgeon from out of the ghetto. It was all because he got a library card from his mother and became interested in being educated. He said something that was profound. If you are educated you can write your own ticket. If you become something in the medical field or become an electrical engineer or a number of excellent professions or trades you can go anywhere and find a good job.

Math and language are vital skills. They are “tools” and needed to do most everything from learning school subjects to managing your money to using at work and even for enjoyment.

My field is math and math is beautiful. It is TRUTH. It exists in nature and we discover the secrets. Once you decide how to count, like in base 10, all the basic skills are just natural. Math is like putting up a building. The footings. The sills. The floor joists. The sub floor and on and on until you are framing the roof and then closing it in. You can’t succeed in 8th grade math if you have parts of your foundation missing, such as you never learned how to do decimals. You need to go back over the basics you are missing and get up to speed. It is important to go to class every day because often today’s lesson is needed for tomorrow’s learning. The main reason students drop out of science and engineering majors in college is their poor math skills.

When I was in grade school my dear mother pulled out flash cards everywhere we went. Addition. Then subtraction. Multiplication and then division. I hated it but I learned my tables. There is so much to learn. Formulas for area and volume. Tables of measurements. Rules for arithmetic with positive and negative numbers (there’s only a few). Learning that equations mean both sides are EQUAL and MUST be kept equal. There’s cute little things to help remember like 30 days are in September… Another way to do this is to make a fist. Start on the knuckle of your index finger, then between that knuckle and the next knuckle, then on the knuckle to all 5 fingers. As you touch each you say Jan, Feb, Mar… On a knuckle the month has 31 days and in between 30 except Feb. For the Great Lakes: ERIE. On a boat: Red Right Returning. On a map, changing from grid north to magnetic north: LARD. Left add, Right deduct. These little things can save your bacon on a test or running a boat through an unfamiliar inlet.