Favourite math teacher:
My favourite math teacher was in Grade 10. She never just handed us formulas. When we learned about area, she had us cut up rectangles and rearrange them to see why the formula worked. She asked “why” constantly, not to trap us, but because she genuinely wanted to know how we were thinking. She treated wrong answers as useful information, not failures. I remember feeling like I was building a map of mathematics instead of memorizing a list of routes. She made math feel connected and human. From her I learned that being slow is not the same as being bad at math, and that understanding "why" makes the "what" easier to remember.
Least favourite math teacher:
My least favourite math teacher was in Grade 11. He taught rules. “Just do this.” When I asked why, he said “because that’s how it is” or “you’ll understand later.” He was intimidating, and eventually I stopped asking questions. I still got good marks by memorizing procedures, but I felt like a fraud. I now see this as Skemp’s distinction between instrumental and relational understanding. He gave us routes, but no map. I learned to be anxious rather than curious, and I avoided math for a while afterward.
What I take forward:
I want to be the teacher who builds maps. I want to explain why, welcome questions, and treat mistakes as part of learning. At the same time, I recognize that I’ll be tempted to teach instrumentally when time is short or exams are looming. I need to remember how it felt to be lost without a map. I also want to learn my students’ goals and not assume we share the same definition of understanding. Skemp’s article helped me name something I felt as a student, and now I want to make sure my future students don’t feel it too.
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