Mamma Is Not Good at Math!
My son believes ‘Mamma is not good at Math’. This is when I am an Economics Honours from St.Xavier’s College, MBA from NMIMS and have done an one year executive program from Wharton!
Now, while I can pat my back on my association with these incredible institutions, he is not entirely wrong. I have this deep-down hesitation when it comes to numbers. My first instinct is to be a little fearful; while I have done well academically – there is a small voice that always makes me nervous when it comes to Mathematics. This small voice has probably led to me limiting my choices and never even considering Engineering or Medicine or Astrophysics! On the other hand, I have had the privilege of growing up in Mumbai and have fairly good language control that gives me confidence to take charge of situations.
The question now arises, what if I had the fear of numbers as well as low language skills? Would I ever have made it to these accredited institutes which were undoubtedly my launch-pad into the corporate world where I worked almost two decades? Does fear of numbers or weak English equate low IQ?
Read More on Influencing Your Child’s IQ
These questions were further cemented in my mind when I witnessed my son being taught beautifully by school teachers online through the pandemic. He knew the concepts and theory very well. However, when I asked him to apply core concepts of ratios to pizzas or conversion metrics to currency – he was clueless.
It is at this point, BrainGymJr was conceptualized – with an aim to solve for this gap between learning, understanding and application.
An interesting report by the World Economic Forum on ‘Education 4.0 India’ released in October 2022 highlights ‘70% of children in grade 3 do not have basic reading and arithmetic skills.’ It also states that ‘Early literacy and numeracy skills not only impact foundational learning but are correlated with greater quality of life and personal well-being and are critical for educational outcomes in the later years.’
Did you know that cognitive development largely happens between ages 5-12 years? Yet, we all push children to upgrade their aptitude only when they need to sit for competitive exams, typically after they turn 18!
Our aim at BrainGymJr is to have a level playing field for students across the world by building foundational literacy & numeracy. No boundaries of socio-economic strata or geography should hamper the opportunity to develop strong cognitive abilities at the right age.
With easy access & availability of BrainGymJr, every child can now strengthen aptitude by sharpening their problem-solving abilities, critical thinking and logical application through core concepts of Math, English & Real-World Skills. What more, they should have a great time doing it – with inbuilt rewards & recognition.
As Albert Einstein famously said, ‘Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of mind to think’. BrainGymJr does simply this – we teach children ‘how’ to think, not ‘what’ to think.
Hopefully, our kids will grow up without the fear of numbers and with great language skills! ?
