What Brazilian family does not have a story to tell about high-school mathematics? You will generally agree that it presents itself as a real monster terrorizing teenagers.
Does it have to be this way? Can mathematics become fun?
That was the question I had, because I was a victim of this teaching format focused on memorizing formulas and repeating procedures without even reflecting on them.
Today, having graduated, I no longer have to get the grade or pass the year. Nor do I have to attend classes in that traditional format. The teacher speaks, the student listens, memorizes, and repeats.
That is why, over the last two years, I devoted myself to rereading mathematics, but this time trying to see its playful side—in other words, exploring mathematics with pleasure.
At first I thought it was impossible. But as I went deeper into my detective work, I found the light at the end of the tunnel.
With the help of national and international references, I carried out a true detox in my mind regarding mathematics. I recovered my taste for exploring the patterns involved in problems.
So I decided to condense all the ideas and tips I absorbed during that period and created a true survival kit that can help you recover your taste for mathematics—or at least reduce your anxiety about it.
Knowing that this distorted view—that mathematics is difficult, bad, a burden, distant, meaningless, and so on—is a true epidemic in Brazil, I decided to make this ebook available for free. Its reach will be very broad, and the more people have access to the ideas and tips contained in the book, the better.
The ebook is a short conversation between me and Mateus, my friend who is suffering through boring classes. I try to show Mateus that learning mathematics is not supposed to be boring.
The book is easy to read and aimed directly at young people. But young people of all ages can read the tips. Parents can read them and pass them on to their children, friends, and so on. The book was made for young people from 8 to 80 years old or more.
I ask for your help in sharing it on Twitter, Facebook, personal blogs—in short, wherever you can. Let us spread positive ideas that can benefit society.
Enough of the myths, lies, and distortions about a subject that is the basis of our scientific progress. From now on, know that mathematics really can be fun.
I know you are already curious to learn the tips, so here is the book:
