NT math is like trying to see in the dark

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Was there ever a certain point where math stopped making as much sense to you, or you realized how you did math seemed different than other people? How do you do math compared to others?
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When I was a kid I always liked seeing what was actually happening with math, sort of like a raw process of values. For instance 40/2 was basically forty (dots? blocks? notches?) divided into two groups, twenty each, or two goes into forty, twenty times. Things like that made sense to me, because I could see what exactly was happening to the numbers and visually keeping track of what was happening to them, like where and how they were flowing in a sort of way.

But then there was long devision. When the teacher started talking about long devision, I did not see the purpose. I did not see the relationship between these new steps and what was actually going on behind them. She would start saying things like "you carry this number over" and things like that. I did not see how all these steps (that seemed random to me at the time) would come up with the answer at the end. I could not associate the random middle steps, with the beginning and the output. So instead, I would just do reverse multiplication in my head because I could see what was happening.

Doing these steps that seemed like they had no relationship to what was happening felt like feeling around in the dark and picking up objects and feeling them trying to guess what they were (why bother?), I just wanted so much to just be able to turn on my own light so I could see. As in doing math my own way and seeing whats happening to the numbers instead of turning the lights out and doing random steps.

It also seemed like a magic trick. A magic trick uses deception or things to fool the eye so you don't really see whats happening. The magician was like the teacher, and the audience was like the students. The magician some how starts pulling lots of bunnies out of a small hat. And all the others kids are like "oooh ahhhh", and me I would want so much to just walk up to the stage and figure out what was actually happening behind the "magic" which is the steps (carrying over the number? which doesn't let you see whats really happening), all to find out the hat has a hole on the bottom of it, and its sitting on a bunny cage with a group of bunnies in a secret cage under the table.

Even today I have my own math. To me normal math is impossible to understand.

Even today I have my own math. To me normal math is impossible to understand.

Yes, I can totally identify with this. The way the teachers told us how to do maths made no sense. I often knew the answer, but had no idea of the various steps we were supposed to do in order to get the answer. Somehow my brain had processed it in a different way, and I knew the answer instinctively. The teachers assumed I was getting the correct answers by fluke.

I eventually taught myself the NT way of doing maths, and it slowed me down considerably. But it was what they wanted at school. I did very well in maths eventually.

This is perhaps a specially interesting question for me as my problems with math in school was the only thing that really made me 'visible' to toher kids so I'm sensitive about it. As I said normal math is greek to me. My father was actually a mathematical genius and he used to get so frustrated trying to help me with math homework that he'd almost explode. I was under incredible pressure to learn how to do stuff the 'normal' way but I just couldn't no matter how hard I tried.

I'm really good at math, but like you I just do it my own way. It's amazing how I'm in 10th grade and kids in my class still have to use a calculator to do fairly simply multiplication and division. I get a bad grade sometimes though, for not showing my work. I don't need to since I do it in my head, but for some reason my teachers never believe me.

I enjoyed math if it has applications that are useful money,taxes,balancing check book etc. they must all mean you know the basics of math. What I didn't understand was F(X) and wavy graphs that were in College Algebra where that stuff could be used IN EVERYDAY LIFE is beyond me! (I heard architects but I'M NOT PLANNING ON BECOMING ONE OF THOSE!! !!) So I found the class frustratingly hard and barely passed with a C!! !!

I can relate. To them, it IS magic. Most elementary teachers are math phobes. They don't get it and need their various crutches. Forget that what could be a crutch to one person can be a barrier to another. Someone who doesn't need the crutches must be a freak. No, scratch that -- you're not allowed to be smarter than the teacher, so they must deny your existence. The teacher culture insists on a one-size fits all theory and you're screwing it up.

Sorry, but I can't resist a comment.

You do not seem to be describing mathematics... just plain arithmetic.

When you speak of not liking the "tricks", you are just objecting to some methods of doing calculations (such as long division), where you have been told they work, but haven't been shown WHY they work. The "why" is what mathematics is all about.

I enjoyed a piece of mathematics where I adapted the concept of square root extraction, via an analogue of how the long division algorithm worked, as applied to binary data, to end up with a square root algorithm that was as fast as a single division. The mathematics was in the proof of why my method always worked.