Tag Info

I hate this answer, but: it depends. Mathematics alone won't do anything. In your observation you are correlating mathematics skills with personal behaviour. What you can't see is whether math made them who they are or who they are makes it easy for them to understand math. Focusing on becoming very good at something is character building. Encouraging your ...

If you replace "mathematics" with "hard science" or "engineering" then I think I see where you're going with this. Much like the first answer, I believe that logical thinking and a good understanding of how things work make it easier to be organized -- but it doesn't help with personal character per se. You could be a math genius, or a fantastic engineer, ...

About personal character not so much, learning maths won't change who you are. However it will help with logical thinking and problem solving throughout your live, thus it will help with confidence in solving tasks/activities. The good thing about math is passion. With my experience math helped me in this way. Having a passion to solve something gives you ...

Some people object to older cartoons as being politically incorrect, violent etc, but I agree with you that the classics contained useful messages about good and evil, right and wrong. That said, many modern cartoons also bring a good message, so I would suggest allowing them to see cartoons from any era but just check age appropriateness.

As with any TV show, you should pick and choose. In my opinion, modern cartoons like "Jane and the Dragon" and "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks" offer a lot more than Bugs Bunny. My 4-year old loves cartoons like "Shaun the Sheep" and "Fireman Sam". On the other side, I find cartoons like "Ben 10" tedious and violent so we tend to avoid those.

I see two main questions here: "Should I let my kids watch the older cartoons I grew up with?" (what you consider "quality cartoons") "Should I control what my kids watch?" Personally, I see no problem with sharing the cartoons of your childhood with your children. I, too, watched Tom and Jerry as a kid. Through the 20/20 vision of hindsight, I see ...

I think the causation is flipped. In my experience, getting very good at anything, but especially at something abstract like math, is difficult. People who overcome initial difficulties to become good at something generally do so because they have a strong character. A few do so because their parents essentially force them to (music lessons come to mind), ...

I don't know how much it builds character, but it provides one with an alternative (and perhaps even refined) way of thinking about problems (and perhaps even, the world). It never hurts to have different ways of thinking about problems. I would also like to add that learning how to write computer programs provides one with another way of thinking about ...