"Math is too hard!" "When will I ever use this?" "I'm just not a math person." Comments like these are all too common in math classrooms. Students, parents, and sometimes even teachers often believe that complex mathematics is just beyond certain learners. But some educators are demonstrating that anyone can learn, understand, and use complex math. Their efforts are illustrated in the following three stories: A group of 6th graders realize that they can perform math that is more complex than the work usually expected of students their age; parents and middle school students in an Ohio community discover that math can be both fun and relevant; and a classroom of elementary school teachers in training come to understand the meaning behind the procedures they memorized when they were math students.
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