Life is a Word Problem

Life is a Word Problem

Ok, so I’ve been student teaching for a few weeks now…


I love it.

Ok so now what.
Oh wait, that’s it.
That’s the goal.
I’m supposed to love what I’m going to do the rest of my life.
But there’s a problem. It’s kind of a first world problem too…


I love doing a lot of things.


Am I getting a teaching job after I graduate? No, probably not (Actually most assuredly not…but that will come later). It’s hard to think about delaying a long-time dream when you are so close to capturing it but if I have learned one thing in college, it’s that I love a lot of different things. There new things in my life that I couldn’t even dream of when I first started college. So, am I denying my dreams? Am I off point to do something else I love?

See, I told you it was a first world problem.

Ok, so it’s going to seem like I go on a massive tangent here, but stay with me as I bring it back to point.

I was teaching the other day (man I love being able to say that!) and as a class we were working through some word problems. I asked the students how many of them hate word problems. Every single student raised their hands. It wasn’t surprising…heck I used to hate word problems too (in fact, I still kind of do, please don’t tell my students) and I proceeded to tell the students, “You should love word problems!”
I asked the students a second question, “How many have asked your math teacher, ‘when are we ever going to use this in real life?’” Once again, ever single wide-eyed freshman raised their hands. Again, not a surprise.

So, I told them, “Life is a word problem.”

Ok, I confess. I didn’t realize say that, but you can’t deny that it would have been an absolutely perfect moment to say it! I did tell the students that word problems are classic examples of when they will use that information in their daily lives.
The point of telling you this story is that life really is a word problem.

This saying was on another math teacher’s wall and I was really inspired by it (in fact it inspired this whole post). Not only is this applicable to students everywhere when they whine to their teacher, “when am I ever going to us this?” but to everyone in general.

Life is a word problem.

Here’s how I handle word problems in step by step fashion (like any math teacher would show you):

When we read a word problem, we have to sort through the information and find out what
we know and what we don’t. This can be what is given or what we can infer, but when you apply it to life it means to learn about the world. Learn about other people, find out all you can so that you have all the information to solve your problem, to fix your situation, or to devise a plan.

The next step to solving a word problem is to sort through and pick out what’s important. Sometimes in word problems we are given extra information and we have to figure out what is essential for us to move forward. Life is the same, we have to figure out what’s important in order for us to move forward. Sometimesm we have to drop some extra baggage.

Now you should create a strategy or plan to solve the problem. We spend most of our life planning and making goals for ourselves. Sometimes you can even plan too much and miss the obvious solution.

The next step is to carry out the devised strategy or plan. This is where most people trip up when solving a word problem and where they trip up in life. In a word problem, it’s supposed to be fairly straight forward. You come up with an equation and solve, but sometimes you miss something that was supposed to be important or you screwed up an operation. You have an answer, but the answer is not what you thought it was. In life, you always make plans, but sometimes things happen unexpectedly or details fall through the cracks. It happens to all of us, and it happens to me frequently.

Finally, after you have an answer to the word problem you make sense of the answer you got. Does the answer make sense in the context of the problem? In life, does where you are at make sense from where you’ve been? If it doesn’t, then maybe a detail fell through the crack or you should devise a new strategy. Perhaps you just got off-track along the way and messed up in your “calculations” in that case you just go back and try to fix your mistake the best you can.

See? It’s amazing how applicable math is to real life.

So when I look at my own “Word Problem,” am I getting off track? Am I messing up a “calculation” somewhere? Do I need to devise a new strategy? Is teaching what I should be doing next irregardless?

I’m not sure, but then again I’m still working through my “word problem” and I’m not even close to an answer.