Part 2 - The Unspoken "Elitism" of Mathematics ...

What is it about Math?

It often seems to be the subject that everyone loves to hate. And that attitude is generally acceptable to most people. The conversation goes something like this ...

Person #1 ... "I hate Math."

Person #2 .... "Oh yeah, me, too!"

Person #3 ... "Not me, I love Math!"

Persons #1 & #2 in unison ..."Ewwwwww ... what are you?? Some kind of GEEK or something?"

And everybody moves a little further away from Person #3.

Yet if you were to take Person #1 aside and ask him if he would like to be able to do Math and understand Math ... he would admit that, YES, he would LOVE to be able to do Math well. Same thing with Person #2. Same thing with almost everybody.

So where is the disconnect? Everybody would like to be good at Math, but not many people are. Think back .... when exactly did Math become a problem for you? Was it in 1st grade? 4th grade? Middle School? Was it Algebra or Geometry?

Almost every adult had to take Algebra and some form of Geometry while in High School. Very few took more than that. Why?

If you are one of those people who would like to be good at Math, but only took what was required of you in High School, I would like to hear from you. When did Math begin to be a struggle for you? Was it the Math or was it the teacher or was it because of issues in your life at the time? Maybe it was a combination of these things?

I have my own theories on this ... but I would like to know how things worked in YOUR case. Please feel free to comment on this post or you may email me at MathMatters@verizon.net.



(to be continued ...)