Me and Mathematics

Many people say that mathematics is hard, and is uninteresting. There are some reasons why people do so. Either because of their bad experiences about their killer-mathematics-teacher, or because of the complexity of the mathematics itself.

For some people including me, the bad experiences are the challenges in learning mathematics. So we can change the uninteresting part becomes interesting. Moreover, we can describe mathematics which are enjoyable, fun, and meaningful.

However, back to the reality, people have their own strength, their own decision, and their own life. “You are in your own way, and I am in my own way,” so I cannot force the people who dislike mathematics to agree with my thought.

I thank to God for having great experiences with mathematics along my life. However, my journey with mathematics doesn’t always great. In the 3^rd grade, I ever got bad scores on some quizzes which called “mencongak”. I wasn’t desperate, and wasn’t sad either because mathematics was not worthy for me. Since the 1^st until the 3^rd grade of elementary school, I just felt mathematics was an ordinary thing, until God met me with the abacus.

My meeting with abacus was quite long. I have joined the abacus course for four years, from the 4^th grade until the 8^th grade. The main purpose of the course was having a skill to calculate numbers in fast just by using the abacus and our own brain (neither calculating by the calculator, nor the paper). At first, I was taught to use the abacus for doing calculate the numbers. Moreover, I was taught to use an invisible abacus on my head, so I didn’t use the real abacus any longer for some types of questions. I just learned to imagine my invisible abacus on my head, and then play with it to solve the problems.

Using the real abacus and the invisible abacus means facing the numbers, the operations of the numbers, and it became an ordinary thing to solve mathematics questions. Along the way, my hobby in mathematics was increasing. My love to mathematics was getting more and more. On the 6^th grade, I was chosen to join the mathematics competition for JABOTABEK region. I didn’t place on the 1^st place but on the 5^th place (harapan 2). I was so happy because it was my first competition, so it motivates me to learn more and more in mathematics.

My relationship in mathematics continued to the junior high school. In the 7^th grade, I had a nice experience with my mathematics teacher. In the other hand, I had a bad experience with my teacher in the 8^th grade. My teacher’s explanation was not clear, so that I didn’t understand about the material. It made my score decline on my rapport book. Next, I thanks to God for giving me a nice teacher in the 9^th grade. I understood his explanation, so I mastered the material given. It made me to make a target for getting the highest score for mathematics final exam. My target was 10, but I did a little bit mistake, so that I was wrong 1 question and my score was 9,67. It hurt me, but again it became my motivation to learn more on mathematics.

In the senior high, my relationship with mathematics was still good. In the 10^th grade, my teacher was not too bad. I could understand his teaching, but I did not brave to join the elimination section for Olympiad yet because my knowledge was still low if I compared with my friends on the other classes that were taught by another teacher. The next year on the 11^th grade, my perception about my teacher was great, even my friends said he was not a good one. However, I still thought that he was great, I could understand his teaching, and also I joined his course outside the classroom. I was brave to join the elimination section for the mathematics Olympiad. However, I failed to continue my effort to the mathematics Olympiad, but I was chosen to join the physics Olympiad. It was a bad news for me, so I never join the training of physics Olympiad, and my dream to join the mathematics Olympiad was over.

My failure to join the mathematics Olympiad didn’t make my relationship with mathematics became lifeless. I still love mathematics, and it motivated me to get the 10 for mathematics on final exam. I struggled to learn mathematics not only from my teacher, but also from another source, such as an internet. Finally, I got it; I succeed for getting 10 on my mathematics final exam.

Another experience about mathematics in the 12^th grade was when my friends and I became a substitute teacher for a month. We taught 2 chapters, “matrices” and “linear programming”. We prepared all of the materials; the exercises, the daily quizzes, and everything are prepared by ourselves. For that, we got 10 for every single assignment on those two chapters from my teacher.

Sharing knowledge to the others is one of a good thing which I love. Along the way of my life, I wonder about my dreams. I really like chemistry and mathematics. I ever thought to become a scientist, but also I thought to become a teacher because one of the teacher’s duties is sharing and transferring the knowledge, so becoming a scientist is cool, or becoming a teacher is great.

To reach my dreams, I took the opportunity in Sampoerna School of Education (SSE) and also the SNMPTN. When the announcement came, I succeed in “Pure Mathematics” of UNJ, but I also succeed in “Mathematics Education” of SSE. It was a very hard decision. By considering the strengths and the weaknesses of each institution, I chose SSE. By taking “Mathematics Education”, my learning in mathematics is less than the “Pure Mathematics”. Sometimes, I feel sad. However, if I re-think about my presence in SSE, I always say “Thanks God, I’m in a precious place.”

To cover my curiosity in “Pure Mathematics”, I joined some pages and groups of mathematics in the social networking. There are so many members who discuss about the material of pure mathematics. I really wanted to join the discussion, but my knowledge didn’t enough. Honestly, it was really sad. However, by paying attention on their discussion, at least I knew how hard “Pure Mathematics” is.

My obstacles in learning mathematics in SSE were the English language and the content of the mathematics itself. I might pride of my bilingual learning in mathematics because so many of my friends just learning mathematics in Bahasa Indonesia, so I had something to be proud. They struggled just in the complexity of the content, but I also struggled in the bilingual learning. Everything has its own strength and weakness, so I just referred to my first statement “you are in your own way, and I am in my own way.” I love mathematics and I love education. Long life for my dream!