Brain is the most amazing organ of the human body. Starting from the birth of any human being the brain processes and stores information of what he sees, hears, smells, tastes or touches. It commands all your senses. It is a perfect logic
machine. Not only does it collect information, it relates all of that information to make decisions and act accordingly.
During childhood every person starts being in touch with math. When a child learns to speak, around the age of two, his parents begin to teach him to say how old he is. As getting older, the concept of possession, of having something that belongs
to us, is inherent in existence itself. And with it, comparisons are inevitable. “I have more toys than you do”, no child wants to have less toys than another child. And so the need to count appears in a natural way. Consequently, that simple fact of counting enriches your knowledge, in others words, it does help to develop your brain. The ability to identify geometric forms, circles, triangles, squares, spheres, pyramids enriches your knowledge and helps to develop your brain too. But Math is not only about counting and geometry, it is also reasoning, something you need as you grow up. Logic decisions are to be made any time in our lives. Because of that, it is not surprising that Math and Language are the two first topics a child is going to learn at school. Children are avid of knowledge, they are always asking “What is this?” What does it mean?” “What is this for?” They want to enrich their knowledge. The concepts of being equal to, greater or lesser than, are basic mathematical concepts. They carry useful information that is stored in the brain. That is why Arithmetic and Geometry are to be taught in elementary school. Teenagers have to learn Algebra, both in middle and high school. Maybe some students will not use what they learned at school, mainly those who choose not technological or scientific careers but many students will use all that knowledge in order to get a college degree and to pursue studies at a graduate school at the university. Even though Math provides everyone essentials tools for reasoning.
Reasoning moves your neurons, keeps your brain working. Math is not just memorizing, of course you need to memorize a lot of concepts as you do when studying some other subjects, but much of what you need to do in Math is reasoning.
As in other basic science subjects, such as Physics, Chemistry or Biology, you are encouraged to follow a rigorous methodology. Scientist propose new theories, based on hypothesis and try to prove a thesis which is the conclusion they want to end up. However, unlike other scientific disciplines, Math uses a deductive reasoning whose results do not change in time; that is, when a mathematical result is established, a theorem, it remains forever. Any theorem is deducted from axioms, which are evident results established from the very beginning, or from previous results. On the other hand, when using inductive reasoning the conclusions or truths are not absolute. In that sense we could say that Mathematics is all about deterministic facts. They do not change and are to be use whenever you need them, they have been stored in some region of your brain. For example, 2 + 2 will be always 4, it is that simple.
And every time you need to apply any mathematical rule or fact, your brain, in some sense, is renewed. Solving math problems keep your brain active. An active brain produce good ideas. Opposite to deterministic facts, there are stochastic facts. These are mainly results from experimental methods both in basic as in social sciences by means of the use of Statistic. Statistics is used everywhere and Probability, a branch of Math, provides tools to establish statistical results. Consequently, when you face both deterministic and stochastic problems you use Math in some way. And when you are trying to solve problems, your brain is working, it remains active.
Another important characteristic of Math is that its learning process is a step-by- step one. Look at this, you start knowing the integer numbers, then you are capable of make comparisons between them, greater than, equal to, lesser than.
Later on you learn adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing them, you are faced to fractions. In middle school you are taught to deal with polynomials and equations. Next, in high school you deal with trigonometry, exponential and logarithmic functions, matrices, system of linear equations. All of this step by step enriching your knowledge, turning your brain in a huge warehouse not only with
more and more information but also with a bunch of processes. Any time you keep in mind the rules, any time you follow those rules to get the solutions to a variety of problems your brain is in movement; neurons are connecting between them and when you finally get the expected result, when you solve a problem, satisfaction come on bringing happiness and joy. Serotonin, the neurotransmitter of happiness flows up and a big smile covers your face.
Solving mathematical problems keeps your brain working. That is the reason why at any level of study, elementary, middle or high school you need to attend Math classes.