Comment by sourcepluck
17 hours ago
Imagine our world was extremely similar to how it is now in any way you'd care to imagine, except two things were different.
1. Everyone (young, old, poor, rich) thinks that maths is interesting and fun and beautiful and important. Not important "to get a good job" or "to go to a good college" or "to be an impressive person", but rather important because it's fun and interesting. And maybe it also helps you think clearly and get a good job and all these practical things, but they're secondary to the tremendous beauty and wondrousness of the domain.
2. Everyone believes that barring actual brain injuries people can learn mathematics to a pretty high level. Not Ramanujan level, not Terrence Tao, not even a research mathematician at one of the smaller universities, but a level of extreme comfort, let's say a minimum level of being able to confidently ace the typical types of exams 17 and 18 year olds face to finish secondary school in various countries.
Would you claim that in that world - people think maths is great, and that anyone can learn it - we'd see similar levels of ability and enjoyment of mathematics?
My claim is that we don't live in "Math-World", as described above, but "Anti-Math-World". And further, that anyone suggesting things have to be the way they are in Anti-Math-World is not only wrong, but also fundamentally lacking imagination and courage.
Kids are told week in week out that maths is stupid, that they are stupid, that their parents themselves are stupid, that the parents hated maths, that the teachers are stupid, and then when they end up doing poorly, people say: "ahhh, some kids just aren't bright!"
Parents who like things like learning and maths and reading and so on, have kids that tend to like those things. And parents that don't, usually don't. Saying that this somehow tells us something concrete and inalterable about the nature of the human brain is preposterous.
It's a card that's used by grown-ups who are terrified by the idea that our education systems are fundamentally broken.
"Kids are told week in week out that maths is stupid, that they are stupid. …."
Come on, how often are kids exposed to such stupid talk? I suspect very infrequently.
My grandmother, who wasn't stupid by any means but who knew only basic arithmetic, would never have uttered such nonsense.
And I'd stress, like many of her generation and background, her knowledge of mathematics was minimal, if she'd been ask what calculus was she'd likely have been perplexed and probably have guessed it to be some kind of growth on one's foot.