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As a math PhD with dyscalcula, I'm very skeptical. I was nearly held back as a child because of poor arithmetic performance, and really only started to be above

As a math PhD with dyscalcula, I'm very skeptical. I was nearly held back as a child because of poor arithmetic performance, and really only started to be above average when we started on algebra. Poor arithmetic isn't that uncommon among the mathematicians I know.

texaslonghorn5 4y ago
Interesting. I do not know much about dyscalcula. At an early age do word problems make it worse or better?
- wardedVibe 4y ago
  I don't think they make much difference either way, as it's specifically the processing of numbers.
NegativeLatency 4y ago
Poor arithmetic actually drove me to learn how to program calculators and caused me to be interested in being a software engineer
zozbot234 4y ago
Did that dyscalculia prevent you from learning and attaining familiarity with the standard algorithms? That's the sensible goal of "drill and kill" in early grades, not doing routine arithmetic with high amounts of significant digits.
- wardedVibe 4y ago
  Nope, its literally recalling the times tables that I choke on. There were timed segments, and I couldn't keep up
chadash 4y ago
I love this. On a similar note, I have a friend who majored in math at Harvard. He once told me that he came into Harvard being arrogant because in high school he was always at the top of his class in math. He enrolls in his first college level math course thinking he's got this, but he soon realizes that "higher math", which is largely proof-based, is a completely different subject than what he learned in high school. A month in he bombs the first exam. He went to the professor, who is originally from Italy, and explained his situation and how he was a star in high school. He responds in a thick Italian accent "that was not math, that was computation. In this course I teach math". The math you typically learn in high school is very important, but I wish that we did a better job of explaining to high school students that what they are learning is completely different from what "real mathematicians" study (although I do think that computation is quite important in engineering, for example).
- strikelaserclaw 4y ago
  For me it was the opposite, i was a pretty average math student in high school and fell in love with proof based math in college. Proof based math requires much more creativity and thus is much for fun for me at-least, i wish i was taught proof based math in HS.
- wardedVibe 4y ago
  One of the major problems is that most of the high school teachers are themselves not very familiar with math, and are more educated in the very different problem of corralling children. To be fair to your friend, 90 years ago they probably could've had a productive career in applied math as an expert computer. There was a point when calc tricks could get you a PhD, but those days are gone.

texaslonghorn5 4y ago

Interesting. I do not know much about dyscalcula. At an early age do word problems make it worse or better?

wardedVibe 4y ago
I don't think they make much difference either way, as it's specifically the processing of numbers.

NegativeLatency 4y ago

Poor arithmetic actually drove me to learn how to program calculators and caused me to be interested in being a software engineer

zozbot234 4y ago

Did that dyscalculia prevent you from learning and attaining familiarity with the standard algorithms? That's the sensible goal of "drill and kill" in early grades, not doing routine arithmetic with high amounts of significant digits.

wardedVibe 4y ago
Nope, its literally recalling the times tables that I choke on. There were timed segments, and I couldn't keep up

chadash 4y ago

I love this. On a similar note, I have a friend who majored in math at Harvard. He once told me that he came into Harvard being arrogant because in high school he was always at the top of his class in math. He enrolls in his first college level math course thinking he's got this, but he soon realizes that "higher math", which is largely proof-based, is a completely different subject than what he learned in high school. A month in he bombs the first exam. He went to the professor, who is originally from Italy, and explained his situation and how he was a star in high school. He responds in a thick Italian accent "that was not math, that was computation. In this course I teach math". The math you typically learn in high school is very important, but I wish that we did a better job of explaining to high school students that what they are learning is completely different from what "real mathematicians" study (although I do think that computation is quite important in engineering, for example).

strikelaserclaw 4y ago
For me it was the opposite, i was a pretty average math student in high school and fell in love with proof based math in college. Proof based math requires much more creativity and thus is much for fun for me at-least, i wish i was taught proof based math in HS.
wardedVibe 4y ago
One of the major problems is that most of the high school teachers are themselves not very familiar with math, and are more educated in the very different problem of corralling children. To be fair to your friend, 90 years ago they probably could've had a productive career in applied math as an expert computer. There was a point when calc tricks could get you a PhD, but those days are gone.