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I'm dyscalculic (with a formal diagnosis) and the "nobody is bad at math, just try harder!" attitude drove me into deep depression during my school years. I sti
by tapoxi 3y ago
I'm dyscalculic (with a formal diagnosis) and the "nobody is bad at math, just try harder!" attitude drove me into deep depression during my school years. I still have nightmares about it.
It's surprising since dyslexia is so common and accepted. We understand and accommodate their disability.
- sshine 3y agoThe article starts with “Here’s how to stop maths-phobia setting in” but does not focus on how to overcome ingrained maths-fobia in adults. What attitude towards math would have prevented your depression and trauma? I think that if “anyone can do math” implies “equally well”, or “any kind of math”, this is going to hit a lot of people hard. I found the math that I was good at very late in life.
- omginternets 3y agoI half-jokingly refer to myself as a recovering math-phobic. What did wonders for my relationship with the subject was to have an actual, concrete problem I wanted to solve, and to experience first hand the joy of understanding its mathematical solution for the first time. It’s the same joy I experienced as a young programmer: the thrill of success, mixed with wonderment at how something could be so simple and yet so magical. I am convinced that accomplishment breeds passion, and that the way to get over a fear of math is the same as any other phobia; confront it in small increments until you’re able to get a few “wins”.
- hedora 3y agoThe title is mathematically equivalent to “what is nobody is good at maths?” This currently-prevailing attitude that humans are interchangeable cogs with no individual talent or personality would be hilarious if it wasn’t so destructive.
- rhaway84773 3y agoNot at all. Just because no one is bad doesn’t imply everyone is equally good at math, unless you think there are only 2 discrete levels of math aptitude. Good and bad.
- Incipient 3y agoYou can mince words, but the concept of being "bad" is relative to the whole. A person bad at maths today would have been good by 1800s standards. Also there isn't anything wrong with being bad at something. If you enjoy it, do it anyway. If you don't enjoy it, do something else. I was a solid "low A student in STEM and barely passed English (haha as a lot of us are). I couldn't care less. I scraped through, and absolutely didn't go into the field of literature. Nothing wrong with that.