For Anand Pitre and his wife Priya, learning math was not about memorizing different equations, but rather understanding the concept to make life easier for the student and their teachers. Fifteen years ago, Mathnasium was created by Larry Martinek in Los Angeles. Martinek wanted to teach his son better math, but thought the concept of memorizing each step was too complicated. He came up with a certain curriculum, and the rest is history. Fast forward to 2018, and over 850 centers are open world-wide, now expanding to Europe and the United Kingdom.
Pitre and his wife opened their first Mathnasium franchise in Doral, and just opened a new center in Miami Lakes. Their newest addition is located at Royal Oaks Plaza at 15410 N.W. 77 Court in Suite 10. Although the location is new, many students from local schools flock over to enhance their skills.
Teachers at the center are chosen like Ivy League applicants, and have to learn a new set of teaching methods to make sure they are “making math sense.” Tutors even have to learn to write upside-down to make it easier when showing students their work. Although Mathnasium has its own proper way of teaching, they never stray from what’s actually being taught at school.
Pitre gave an example to teach their methods. First, add 99 plus 99 plus 99. Most students get stumped when they see so many large numbers put together. But instead of adding each one-by-one, Pitre teaches a short-cut to keep students from doing unnecessarily lengthy addition.
“When I tell a kid, when you see 99 what do you think? 100, right? So if I add 100 three times, what will it give me? 300, and how much would I have to take away? Three, so that would be 297. This is how we want to address the math,” Pitre explained.
Mathnasium teaches the youngest possible student until they learn Calculus. They create a membership model like a gymtype contract. Come when you need to, or don’t. It’s set in a group setting with revolving tutors. Instead of having the same person teach you the same subject over and over again, several tutors teach you the same method in the same way. That way, there’s no confusion and no boring routine.
For more information about Mathnasium, visit their website at mathnasium.com/miamilakes or call (844)588-6284.