Innumeracy's a big word for a malady many of us picked up in elementary school: the sweating palms, the shaking knees, the lightheadedness that occurs when a teacher says, "Please open your math books." Sadly, these symptoms may remain throughout life, manifesting itself during budget meetings at work and tax time at home. Strangely, carriers of innumeracy often wear their illness as a badge of honor. Unfortunately, it can also be contagious, spreading down the generations. Dave Youngs, mathematics education professor at Fresno Pacific University, has a warning and a solution in this week's Scholars Speak.

“Have you read a good book lately?” is a common conversation starter. Often the query is answered by an enthusiastic, “Yes!” and the sharing of one’s latest literary find.

I have yet to hear, “Have you done a good math problem lately?” Don’t people love mathematics as much as reading? Evidently not—but it’s more than a lack of affection. Upon finding out I’m a math teacher, many normal, successful adults feel the need to confess they were never good in math and/or hated the subject. In fact, this phobia is often worn as a badge of pride.

Noted mathematics educator Marilyn Burns states in her book, Math: Facing an American Phobia, that the majority of American adults, “fear and loathe mathematics. Math is right up there with snakes, public speaking, and heights.”

These same people, if they could not read, would never admit it to an English teacher, nor would they tolerate illiteracy in their children. Yet they are quite willing to share—even flaunt—their innumeracy (a term made popular by Temple University mathematician John Allen Paulos.)

We all know children need to read. Moreover, we want children to read for fun, so we try to get them excited about it. We read good books with them. We copy poems they can recite. We fill their classrooms and bedrooms with books. We do everything we can to instill in children a love of reading as part of a larger goal: to help young people become lifelong learners.

Developing a love of mathematics fits this goal equally well. Just as in reading, children need to develop particular mathematical skills and, also as in reading, must go beyond the basics so they can use mathematics throughout their lives.

Because of the high-stakes tests that dominate education, math is emphasized in every grade. The view, however, is strictly utilitarian. It is a subject that students must learn, but certainly don’t have to enjoy. To increase test scores, many states have introduced higher math topics at lower grade levels. This pressure makes mathematics instruction more intense and less enjoyable for teachers and students alike.

Where there is no joy there is little chance for learning. But parents and teachers can find ways to create that joy. My practice as a classroom teacher was to start the math period every Monday with a short brainteaser students could work on whenever they had time through the rest of the week. Then for the first 10-15 minutes on Fridays, students would share their thoughts and solutions to the weekly brainteaser. My students loved them.

Occasionally on Fridays I would spend more time—sometimes an entire period—on an involved recreational mathematics problem. Groups of students would collaborate to find the solution(s) in as many different ways as possible. Again, these problems proved enjoyable for most students, and I used them as motivation for normal assignments by telling the class we wouldn’t do Friday Math unless we kept up in the textbook.

Teachers who use puzzles and more involved problems with their middle school students report dramatic change. First, students enjoy these activities immensely and thus feel better about mathematics as a subject. Second, students become much more persistent when doing mathematics since puzzles and brainteasers require persistence to solve.

But teachers can’t fight innumeracy alone. Parents must be as involved in teaching a love of mathematics as they are in teaching a love of reading. We must:

If we do this, there is a fair chance at least some of our children will love math and, with luck, seek out good math problems. And perhaps there is a lesson for the rest of us. What puzzles and problems might we find that bring joy to math? Then, when asked, “Have you done a good math problem lately?” we could answer an enthusiastic, “Yes!”