Saying "mathematics" sometimes provokes a grimace of rejection in many people because it is a feared subject during school years—one of the most important and decisive for studies, but also for life.

Of course, it is a matter of taste, because we have a certain inclination toward particular fields of knowledge due to affinity, because we are good at them, because we understand them, for many reasons. But perhaps what happens with this aversion is that mathematics was imposed, and we did not have a dedicated teacher who could inspire a love for it, who taught us to think, who made us understand what an equation consists of, and who explained that solving a mathematical problem cannot be done mechanically but involves a great deal of interpretation.

And this happens in almost every aspect of life that involves reasoning, where instead, memory without analysis, reciting and repeating concepts on autopilot, is primarily used. It is a mistake, and that way no passion can be unleashed. Nevertheless, even if we complain, we need mathematics for everything, even for cooking.

But saying "mathematics" brings back school memories that make us sweat: the blackboard full of numbers, a gigantic formula that seemed written in Aramaic, the fear of making a mistake in front of the class, the silence, and the feeling that there are people who are good at calculations and others irremediably condemned to not understand. But that is not the case.

The mistake may lie in the fact that we have been made to look at mathematics solely as a school subject, when it is not only operations, formulas, and results, but, above all, a way of organizing thought that appears in our lives very early and innately.

If a child tries to figure out how many pieces are needed to complete a Lego construction, they are adding and subtracting; when they classify objects by size, they are recognizing a sequence in them and calculating how much is missing. Counting is already a mathematical operation that requires memory and thought; it begins simply and scales up.

When that same child looks for a strategy to win a game or discovers that a figure can be divided into others, they are performing a profoundly mathematical operation, even if they do it somewhat crudely and even if they do not yet know a single algebraic symbol—they do it naturally, without much effort.

The problem is that fears arrive later. It is true that it becomes more complex and school pressure appears. That is why the important thing is not to lose the thread, to overcome each stage before moving to the next, because doubts that accumulate leave gaps that make it impossible to solve problems later.

That is why it is valuable, in that early mathematical beginning of a child's life, to foster a different relationship with numbers based on curiosity, not on the panic of failure, because we also learn from mistakes.

Mathematics forces us to ask questions, and that is fundamental for stimulating thought, because, undoubtedly, we must think before calculating to reach a solution. Along that path, we evaluate errors as well as what possibilities we have, which one fits best, and whether an alternative exists to find the same result.

That reasoning process is more significant than memorizing a formula. Beyond the elementary and in practice, truly assimilating mathematics means developing the ability to reason and use its resources to formulate, interpret, and solve problems in real situations. It is essential for life.

It is not a mere sequence of executing operations like a robot; it is about using concepts and tools to understand and explain, to predict and make decisions.

Mathematics from an Early Age

The most curious thing is that mathematics begins little by little, slowly increasing its level of difficulty while training us, as if our brain were going to the gym and could do more and more each time. That is how it works. We cannot expect to understand a logarithmic equation without knowing how to divide fractions, for example.

Mathematics directly works on capacities related to the so-called executive functions—that is, working memory, inhibition of impulsive responses, and cognitive flexibility.

In this sense, the skills acquired will be useful beyond school, because mathematics is everywhere. The most basic example is when we have to pay for groceries and calculate whether we have enough and whether we received the correct change; when we compare prices or dream of buying, say, a dress, and we have to plan how long it will take according to our finances. Is that not mathematics at first glance?

But it is similar when we follow a recipe, when we distribute a tight work schedule so that it fits into 24 hours a day, when we measure the distance between one place and another to know whether it is far or not, even when we arrange furniture in the house because, without knowing it, we use spatial notions, proportion, and geometry.

And so, the list of examples that flood daily life, composed of small quantitative decisions, is immense. Mathematics surrounds us; it is so present that we do not even stop to think about it—we simply execute.

Scholars on the subject note that the first contacts with mathematical thinking build the foundations on which more complex knowledge can later be constructed. Hence, they suggest observing children who enter this world through play, which favors a more natural immersion into this path that later, sometimes, becomes twisted when competition and non-personalized attention arrive, in addition to environmental and psychological factors.

Nor is it about turning childhood into a school of adding and subtracting, or imposing boring content that is not in line with their age and what they have already learned. That is not the point. But there are many ways to stimulate. Puzzles, classifying figures, completing series, finding differences, playing dominoes—these and more involve mathematical operations through the recognition of patterns, quantities, spatial relationships, and rules.

What begins as entertainment prepares us to solve everyday problems; it works our capacity to reason until we find paths. It is true that its study is mandatory in school and should not be assumed as torture—that is where teachers' responsibility lies. Let us know that there are no "mathematical" brains and minds punished by incomprehension of the field of numbers, but rather different educational experiences, opportunities, rhythms, and, of course, specific difficulties that require support.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff