I am very philosophical about life. I believe there are no “rights” or “wrongs”, no one is ever “bad” or “good”. Life is simply life, and people are only human.

And I love all people on Earth (well … I know, I know … And still – I do!).

I used to be very different. Maybe this is why I am so adamant today about these, my philosophical beliefs. At some point in my life, I rebelled against my parents’ views that everything and everybody around is either “black” or “white” – well … like maths.

But when it comes to maths, I am adamant again. This time, I fully agree with my parents: everything in maths is always absolutely unambiguous.

I mean it!

Everything.

Always.

Absolutely.

Everything* one does in maths is either right or wrong.

Full stop.

* I believe this is true for at least very well-established parts of maths, like school maths and way beyond. 

With many years of Engineering research under my belt, after my maternity leave, I was about 2 years into my maths tutoring business. By then, I already knew how many people struggled with math, but now I could clearly see why. I could clearly see how the school system was failing kids at maths. This is when I became adamant to do my best to fix this problem.

My maths revolution started in October 2015, but it was August 2015 when I was sitting next to my very 1st marketing advisor asking her for help with promoting my revolution.

“Oh no! We’ll be selling your services” says she, with an aura of confidence. “We’ll never criticise anyone. It’s not a good practice”.

“But… you see?” I started humbly. “You see … yes… I understand this … I read many books on marketing … See? It’s just … I … I need your help … because … I simply must tell the truth about the school system and maths teachers to my students and their parents, or how can I save their sanity? Help me, please!!?”

No.
She could not help.

And here I am now, on 8th December 2021. By now, I have had 20++ marketing advisors. I tried many marketing ways and had many people to help me – their skills were ranging from skills of marketing crooks to skills of marketing geniuses.

By now, I have read dozens more books on marketing…

Yes, I love marketing now, much more than I ever loved maths! Marketing skills, eh? Not only do they help sell services to people, they have also helped me to learn how to “sell” maths concepts to my students, so that they “buy them”, despite initially (often) hating maths!

By now, I have talked to 100s of my connections on LinkedIn (thank you all who talked to me and supported me! 💜).

And do you know what?

No, I do not like criticizing anyone. People are “only human”! And I love them all!

But …

Forget all the rules and manners, Lena and just tell the World what really goes on! Just make Your Maths Revolution! Or how can you live and breathe knowing what you know?

And if not now, then when?

So, here I come.

Brace yourself, my dear reader!

Today, I shall share with you only this one example. This is only one of many thousands! But I have to begin somewhere, don’t I?

So, I have started with this student’s story which happened to be my “final straw”. This story has made my maths revolution unavoidable.

So, here we go.

A story of one student

Back to September 2015

I re-started my maths private tutoring in 2013 after a long maternity break. Now a mother, after all I had to go through from 2004 (when my only son was born), I saw and felt my students completely differently compared to what I saw and felt when I was much younger. For example, in 2013, I started noticing something that I did not pay attention to before: practically all my private students, i.e. “underperforming in maths students”, were in fact (potentially) great at maths!

Moreover: the more talented at maths a student turned out to be, the more in shock a student was when we first met at my taster lesson!

You see? Maths is in my blood, and after teaching about 10–15 students I clearly sensed this correlation. It was obvious to me!

Soon I knew why my intuition was right (today I am even more sure it is right!)

This is how it happened.

It was September 2015 and here I was, facing yet another new student and his mother. An intelligently looking boy 15 years old in his final GCSE year.

“He is very good at maths, see? A teacher thinks he can get a 9*” said the mother proudly. “And this is what we all want”.

* For a “new GCSE” (new from 2015) 9 is the highest mark for which a student needs to score about 90% ++ on their exam.

I was patiently waiting for what would come next, and a very familiar sentence came straight away:

“He just lacks confidence,” continued the mother with an aura that she was absolutely sure about her diagnosis. Her voice began to shake, though: “Well … only a little … Yes! He loves maths!! But … Well … Can you help him to restore his confidence, please?”

With my simple “Yes, sure, I shall do my best”, I saw her off to the door and, after she left, the work began.

I immediately could see that the boy was indeed exceptionally talented at maths, but he was in deep shock. He tried to hide it and to prove to me and to the whole world (but, mainly, to himself) that he was feeling great and that he indeed loved maths.

He asked me for some help with functions.

“Sure!” and I immediately could see that he did not know loads of basic staff (by now I know a priori that this is true for all my students, on all levels. I’ll make a post on this, one day, and you’ll be able to test your child, too – if you wish).

Gently preserving his ego and pride, I started helping him to fill in one basic gap after another. Yes, the boy was talented at maths (I mean it) so he could see that while he knew a lot, practically no maths was making sense to him. Not even primary maths! (As I said, this is true for all my new students. Shocking? Yes, it is. I know. Hence my revolution).

Lesson after lesson, his shock weakened, his confidence began to grow with his maths understanding, and soon we were back to functions again (but at a full speed now).

And suddenly – oops ! Here comes yet another basic maths blunder!

“Is 1 a prime number?”

“No”, proudly (and correctly, according to the UK school modern maths traditions) answered the boy.

“Great. And why not?”

Back came a very confusing answer.

I immediately saw where the problem was: he was trying to repeat to me an explanation into which he did not really believe himself. (Oh, yes. He was great at maths to sense something was wrong in his explanation!)

“A prime number is …” he started with a shaking voice trying to look confident.

From his explanations clearly and logically followed that 1 is a prime number. But UK schools teach that 1 is not a prime number.

OOPS.

“Who gave you this explanation?”

“A teacher”

OOPS!

OK, my dear reader. What do you think a polite tutor should say to this boy?

Remember? Maths is in my blood.

Remember? Maths is 100% unambiguous.

What could I say but that his problems stemmed from his teacher’s lack of maths skills and/or knowledge?

Well … I started “manoeuvring”, trying to politely say that “Sorry … well … You can see yourself that your teacher’s definition is … sort of … not exactly correct … See? … It’s ok, just … you see? And if we …”

Yes. He could see it all without me explaining, really …

Maths in unambiguous!

I am good at maths hence I see it.

He saw it, too. Because he was also good at maths!

So, maths was fixed in 1 sec.

But the emotional traumas cannot be fixed easily… His maths world simply crashed! His eyes died right in front of me. The boy was mentally destroyed. So, at this point my healing job began …

Sad, but back in 2015 I had no chance to properly help this particular boy emotionally: the boy’s mother cancelled our lessons about 3–4 weeks after his wounds only just started healing so he, potentially, could start speeding up working towards his 9 in GCSE maths.

“We cannot really afford private lessons, see?” the mother explained over the phone. “Thank you very much for your help, he feels much better, but we are leaving you now because I have now arranged some additional help for him at school. His maths school teacher agreed to help him for free.”

Ouch.

I do not know what happened to that boy after he left me back to where he came from. But I know what happened to me: I started telling parents and kids more and more openly that I do not teach maths like in school. This is to make sure this emotional turmoil will not happen to any my students ever again. If parents are not happy with my teaching ways, at least a child will never know what really goes on in his maths life and why!

This is how my Maths Revolution began.

This is how it became unavoidable.

After this boy, I have had hundreds of kids with the same problem. Many teachers, some (if not all) school maths textbooks and often Google (but not Wikipedia) make maths blunders and do illogical things – all over the place (not only in defining a prime number), making my blood boil!

So, what do you want from the kids? Sure, their confidence and sanity go down the drain.

As for me, I do not ask anybody for any advice anymore. My first marketing advisor was sacked a month after this student left me. From that moment on,  it’s unambiguous for me: I routinely tell kids the truth about maths blunders that I see all over the place, making sure they see them, too. Because maths in unambiguous. If I see them and I am absolutely sure, they will see them, too! And their confidence just grows more and more because they too are absolutely sure. They too are great at maths and maths is absolutely unambiguous!

2 + 3 = 5

This is true always and forever.

2xy + 3xy = 5xy

This is true always and forever.

Everywhere.

Everywhere on Earth.

Everywhere in the Universe.

And here I am today. Today you, my dear adults – today you know my truth, too! See now where hating maths and, potentially, mental disorders related to maths come from?

I do! And you?

Thank you for reading my article and  I can’t wait to know your feedback about what I have just shared. Thank you.

I do not need to be told that criticizing is a bad (marketing) practice. I know.

But I do not feel the need to apologise for openly mentioning that teachers and textbook make too many maths blunders, either!

And Google.

They give an old-fashioned definition of a prime number and, immediately next to it, they do not list 1 among the smallest prime numbers! This confuses people with strong maths brains and, if they lack their maths confidence (as most kids do) – omg!

And kids trust Google probably more than they trust their own parents! So, dear Google. No apologies to you, either.

And Wikipedia?

Yes. They are spot on mathematically. I have never seen any maths blunders there, definitely not on school level maths, but they are way too tough for school kids (they are very often tough for me). Mathematicians like my Dad do enjoy themselves there to the full! Let them.

So, my dear adults.

I care only about one thing: kids. They are our future!

I care about kids’ sanity and my mission is to restore their and their parent’s peace of mind if maths has destroyed it.

Full stop.

Yes.

Maths is absolutely unambiguous.

So, the more talented at maths a student is, the stronger the chance that they will sense/see maths blunders. But when things feel wrong, kids naturally tend to blame themselves rather than teachers/textbooks/Google/etc., hence their confidence gets destroyed and, worse, this may affect their mental health, and very seriously (e.g. maths anxiety).

I observe these blunders and save kids’ sanity every day.

See here what my students and their parents think about my maths teaching ways.