As someone who hasn’t taken a math class in over 30 years, I’ve only recently realized I was taught how to do math all wrong.

I was taught how to find a solution to the problem. Tips and trick for math class. Math for dummies.

It would have been far better to have been taught a system. How does the system work? And where does this problem fit into the system? This would have not only been better for the way my brain works, but it would also have been a better way to teach math.

My math teachers focused on teaching mathematical procedures.

I never learned what those procedures mean.

This could be a common issue across problem-solving genres.

When faced with a problem, a real puzzler and a head-scratcher, we want to fix that single issue. Maybe we should seek to understand why that problem exists in the first place.

Most problems need systems more than they need solutions.