The Importance of Math

Growing up in a Russian family, the importance of education has always been molded into my head. However, it wasn’t just education in general, but two specific subjects that my family, and culture, seems to think are the most important: reading and math. In school, I was expected to get straight A’s. If I got a B in Spanish or Social Studies, my parents would be disappointed, but it was not the end of the world. However, if I ever got anything less than an A in reading or math, my parents would be extremely upset. I first learned this when my mom tried teaching me how to solve equations in second grade, because she believed that using the “guess and check” method was not appropriate. Of course, being seven years old, equations just did not click for me. Then in 7th grade my mom hired a math tutor for me, not because I was doing poorly in math, but because she wanted me to exceed the classroom’s lessons. Unfortunately, all my mom’s efforts backfired when after having that same tutor for 6 years, until the SAT’s, I despised math. I ended up doing well in math on the SATs and in school, but I hated that subject. However, upon starting high school, after having a year of no math tutor, I did exceptionally well in Calculus. This just proved to me that all my parents’ efforts destroyed my desire to study math. Therefore, I think that their views on education are wrong because emphasizing one specific subject will most likely leave that person with a life long apathy towards it. Luckily, in my case my parents are now more concerned with my science performance, because I am a chemistry major, but I know that they are the most happiest with the knowledge that I have gotten A+’s in math all year.
I think the reason that Russian people emphasize mathematics so much is because math is considered the essence of knowledge and reason. Without education in Russia, it was almost impossible to maintain a normal level of living. Also, excellence in mathematics was correlated with intelligence. Taking that into consideration, and the fact that my entire family is amazing at math, explains why my parents want me to excel so much in this subject.