Practice make Perfect!

A few days ago, I was sharing the method of solving maxima and minima problems with my students. I discovered that they are very good at following a fixed method of solving. I was relating this to the instruction following environment that the current Z-generation is being brought up with. They are bombarded constantly with a plethora of instruction followings in facebooking, gaming etc.
The application problem is something that is a challenge for most. However, some of them could solve by looking at similar pattern. There are a handful who could think through the problem and come out with innovative solutions, too!
Interestingly, the students that solve more problem are progressing despite the difficulty of the problem. The fast learner that solve less problems are at equal with the those average learner that solve a lot of problem. Perhaps, practice make perfect is true for every skill, mathematics is just another skill!
On the other hand I found another group of students who has no confidence at all in solving problem. These tend to refer to solutions of others and  be a copycat. They are found to be hardly progressing in they learning.
I strongly encourage these group of students to try solving problem on their own without relying on solutions of others. Hopefully that will help them to progress better....

I have heard of retirees that stop active thinking  or working developed Alzheimer and soon afterward  depart their earthly life.On the contrary I knew quite a few uncles and aunties who keep themselves involved in various organisations and voluntary work maintain their mental alertness and stay healthy.

It seems to me that, relating these two cases of students and retirees,the more we use our skills, be it mental or otherwise the better we are at it. Moreover, not using the skills acquired will fasten the pace of aging! Truly the adage of practice make perfect has a lot of sense!