

The Myth of 'I'm Bad at Math' - Jtsummers
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/the-myth-of-im-bad-at-math/280914/

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gordaco
While I agree that mathematicall ability can very much improve with time and
hard work, I still think that there _are_ "math people". However, it's largely
a matter of interest, not ability.

I know my case: I'm not a bright person at all, yet I've loved maths since I
was... like 4, maybe less. I used to climb to shelves to get my siblings' math
books from older courses and read them with passion, resulting in anecdotes
like understanding negative numbers at 5 or knowing what a square root was at
6. I hold the firm belief that any child (any without development problems, at
least) could understand those concepts, and many others more complex than
those, at similar ages. However, very few will do, for the simple reason that
they would rather spend time with a few friends and a ball than surrounded by
books; I won't blame them.

And just like I was the mathy boy, I was also the clumsy boy at PE, because I
used to spend much less time running or playing soccer. It ends being a matter
of frequency: most children will prefer playing than reading or doing math, so
at those ages the normal boy has developed a much better ability for sports
than for maths. Because of that, ability for sports is regarded as normal, and
everyone accepts that most people can start exercising at later ages; we all
have the required gears. Maths, on the other hand, is still something that few
kids develop deeply enough, and because of that, it's regarded as uncommon,
which in turns causes most people to believe that it's a matter of innate
ability instead of hard work.

That said, teaching maths is tremendously hard, which is another big factor. I
developed most, if not all, of my mathematical epiphanies by myself. The task
of learning maths is difficult to direct from outside.

~~~
r41nbowcrash
It's worth to mention that being 1-2 years ahead of the programme gives you
early successes, something to fall back when things go little rough later on.

No school, and no teacher in the world can make you feel "bad at math", if
your mother taught you elementary arithmetic at the age of 5. Thanks mom.

