How Long Will It Take Dorothy to Complete 22 Math Problems?

If you tell yourself you’re bad at something, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. That’s why when my son used to ask for help with his math homework, I never said, “I’m no good at math.” I said, “Go ask your father.”

My husband is a former elementary school teacher whom I once caught thumbing through an old calculus textbook for fun. I never took calculus and I remember nothing of algebra or geometry. I take that back. I do know a rectangle when I see one. But I have a journalism degree with an English minor. Thankfully, it takes all kinds; it just takes some kinds longer to do math. And at my house, that was the kind that was usually around at homework time.

As a liberal arts person, my least favorite of all math problems are story problems. Story problems take something I’m very fond of — stories — and turn them into something I’m not fond of at all: math problems.

I realize story problems are real life problems and that we encounter them on a daily basis. Take this example: Dorothy is baking a chocolate cake. The recipe calls for…oh wait. Bad example. I never bake cake, though I do eat cake, sometimes multiple pieces.

Let’s try another example: Mrs. Rosby’s son needs $250 for the camp he’s attending this summer. He also needs a new pair of shoes which will cost anywhere from $20 to $50 depending on what kind of mood Mrs. Rosby is in the day they go shopping. Mrs. Rosby has $17. How much money will Mrs. Rosby need to win on scratch tickets in order to pay her son’s expenses? And how many years until he can get a job so he can pay them himself? (Oh, and don’t call me Mrs. Rosby. It makes me sound old. How many years older does it make me sound?)

When I helped my son with story problems, the liberal arts part of me couldn’t help but come out as you’ll see from the following problems taken from actual math worksheets:

Problem 1: Each week Sarah washes dishes three nights, washes clothes one night, empties trash cans two nights, and cooks supper one night. If you stop by randomly one evening, what are the chances that Sarah would be cooking dinner? A math person would say “1 in 7” (I think.) I say, “What are the chances that Sarah could come to my house a few nights a week?” (I like stories with happy endings.)

Problem 2: David can walk 12 blocks in 5 minutes. If each block is 50 feet long, how many feet will David walk during the 30 minutes he walks his dog? A math person would say 3600 feet—or something like that. I say, “That depends. Does the dog have to pee and how long has he had to hold it?”

Problem 3: Dorothy has 22 math problems to do. She completes one problem every three minutes. In hours and minutes, how long will it take Dorothy to complete all 22 problems? A math person would say, “One hour and six minutes.” I say, “One problem every three minutes? Are you joking? That’s no self-fulfilling prophecy; that’s a miracle.”

Excerpt from Dorothy’s book, I Didn’t Know You Could Make Birthday Cake from Scratch: Parenting Blunders from Cradle to Empty Nest..