There are three critical areas of K-12 education that any high school students must master before they graduate high school: Reading, Writing, and Math. All three subjects require careful long term planning and many years of rigorous work to build a solid foundation and achieve mastery. Unfortunately, Five Easy Steps to Master..., just does not apply to these subjects. Also, it so happens that these are the same subjects that the students have to master to go to decent colleges, and in turn, land high-paying jobs.

Math in particular has been the biggest problem of the three. Most parents find it difficult to gauge their children's appropriate level and performance. On top of that, the self described 'math education experts' keep inventing new and unproven ways to teach math that parents and, even teachers, cannot help the kids with.

Under the current system, students seldom build mastery in critical skills like multiplication tables, long division, manipulating fractions, and algebraic symbols. However, grading is not dependent on mastery. Most students get A's and B's just for going through the motions, but deep understanding and critical thinking seldom materialize. So, your children's math performance flies under the radar while you are believing the school's assertion that they are doing just fine, until they bomb the SAT test. All of sudden, the high hopes you had with your bright children when they entered kindergarten were cruelly squashed and you find yourself shopping for the 'best' community college. Did you know that even community colleges are now claiming that more than 50% of their applicants end up in remedial math courses?

Math has been shrouded in myth to many people's mind in this country: you have to be born with the right "gift" to be good at it. Study after study proves otherwise. For every Einstein there are a million 'normal' others that will make confident scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. That is, if they are presented with proper challenges, instruction, and environment which allow them to discover their comfort zone within the realm of math.

Once the children feel comfortable with math (they do not have to LOVE math unlike many insist) they are likely to move on to the higher levels at faster pace with less fear. How do we make them feel comfortable with math? With more exposure. Do you remember how your children fought you with tooth and nail at the beginning of memorizing the multiplication table, but the resistance gets less and less, and eventually it becomes the second nature for them? The same is true for other aspect of mathematics, too. Unfortunately, once the children reach middle school it is very hard to find that comfort zone, if not impossible.

Math is not just for selected elites. It's for everyone. Until we parents and the schools discover that almost all children are capable of performing at much higher levels, we will have to stay active in this endeavor.