Being confident
As the need for mathematical thinking pervades our society, the need to feel ownership of that thinking power is all-important. We are well into an era when it can no longer be fashionable to announce, “I never was any good at math.” Children must, From the earliest grades and continually throughout their school experiences, be made to feel the importance of personal success in solving problems, figuring things out, and making sense of the world. It is difficult to develop confidence in your mathematical abilities if all you do in that domain is follow unfathomable rules that seem handed down from above. Only by making your own sense of thinks, discovering a pattern, figuring out a relationship, solving a problem, or inventing a procedure can you begin to develop a sense of “I can do mathematics!” As teachers of children, it is imperative that we provide an atmosphere in which such self –confidence can develop in every child.