MINT HILL, NC – Middle and high school math cause angst in the hearts of many students. Because of my vocation as an educator, I am privy to the sighs and moans of students who long to be far away from math of any kind. This is especially painful for me to witness as a Kumon Instructor. You see, it’s not fractions, decimals,  Math I or Math II that’s the real problem. The real issue at hand is the student’s the lack of computational skills. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are the building blocks of high level math. There is a distinct difference between knowing how to solve a long division problem and doing so quickly and accurately with little to no assistance. Not having a firm grasp on the four basic functions can cause serious problems in middle and high school math. When students focus on learning mental calculation and committing times tables to memory, this helps tremendously in building strong math skills. My recommendation to students who are struggling in middle school and high school math is to revisit the basics. Find out where your weakest point is in your foundational math skills. Once you discover where you are weak, work on those fundamentals until your math skills are solid. Once weak math skills are strengthened, it will translate into your performance in high level math. High performance in middle and high school math is laid on a strong foundation of basic math skills. Let’s face the (math) facts!