Everyone has a monster lurking somewhere. The monster may be one color, many colors, very bright or maybe pale. It might be large, little, out in the open for all to see, or hiding in the closet ready to jump out and scare you at any given moment.
As we work hard to promote engineering we sometimes run across these monsters. We may not only see a student's monster but we may inadvertently see their parent's or friend's monsters too. Very often, the monster has the word "Engineering" or "Math" written across its forehead.
Effective ways for students to deal with monsters is to go around them, jump over them or push them out of the way. You can do that with engineering. If a guidance counselor, a teacher or a parent says that engineering isn't a good fit, you can still pursue the career. If Hollywood chooses to call a superhero, such as Tony Stark in Iron Man, a scientist instead of an engineer, you can know better and simply ignore the monster. But with math, you can't go around it, you can't jump over it and you can't push it out of the way.
Students have to learn it and go hand-to-hand with any math monsters that may be lurking close by. It's a different way of thinking and dealing with life if you are used to going around, jumping over or pushing. As you probably know, patience with students is essential because changing the way you think can sometimes take years.
