>It’s an incredibly common cause of anxiety in math education I question whether this can be a root cause of anxiety. Simply not understanding stuff does not n

>It’s an incredibly common cause of anxiety in math education I question whether this can be a root cause of anxiety. Simply not understanding stuff does not normally cause anxiety. Most people don't get anxious looking at, for example, Chinese characters. On the other hand, imputing that something should be frightening can actually cause a fear response: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-20380-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1993-20380-001 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030105110600024X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030105110... https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1968 https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1968 Teaching students that incomprehensible math should frighten them doesn't seem like a good approach. There are no grades or critical teachers when you're passively reading a Wikipedia article.