by  Julia Moulden, originally published in The Huffington Post, 10/24/09

“Math is the easiest subject for kids to learn.”

Say what?

Yup, that’s what John Mighton believes. And he’s got everything he needs to back up this counter-intuitive assertion.

Let’s start with the commonly-held view. “Math is hard.” Even Barbie said it. We somehow grow up thinking that either you’re born with the math gene or you’re not. And if you’re not, well, good luck to you. Like most people, you’ll begin to falter in grade school, think it’s hopeless, and give up. Sound like you? Your kids? Your students?

What if there were a different way of looking at math? Well, there is. And John Mighton is its champion. This new way says this: every child can learn how to do math. Every child. And that learning in this new way opens the door to everything else.

Our story begins where it must, with John. In his thirties, he began tutoring students in math as a way to supplement his income as a playwright (more on that later). His childhood interest in math rekindled (like you and me, he figured he didn’t have the math gene), he decided to go back to school to become a mathematician. Even though he’d tutored for years, before long he found himself struggling and flunked a couple of tests. Paralyzed by insecurity, he convinced himself that he had reached a threshold he’d never get beyond. But then he started to think about what he’d learned as a tutor. That if he broke things down for students into small increments, if they had a chance to practice and learn, they could inevitably continue. He realized that the same thing was true for him, too. This was John’s first “a-ha!” moment. A powerful enough realization that he went on to earn his PhD.

Looking for a way to give back to his community, he decided to try to help more kids with math. One day, it occurred to him that mathematicians don’t always make the best teachers of the subject, because math comes easily to them. And here comes the second “a-ha!”. “Because I’d struggled with math myself, as a tutor I wasn’t inclined to blame the student. If the student didn’t understand, I assumed there was something wrong with my explanation.”

How powerful is that? Eager to get his revolutionary approach to teaching math into the hands of teachers, John created a not-for-profit organization called JUMP (Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies). Today, JUMP is getting spectacular results with all kinds of kids. For instance, after working with JUMP, an entire class of Grade 3 students, including so-called slow learners, scored over 90% on a Grade 6 math test. A group of British children who had been written off as too unruly responded so enthusiastically and had such impressive results that the school board adopted the program. I could go on and on.

To read more click here.

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