Comment by hilbert42
3 days ago
"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.
In math classrooms filled with 30 students on average for 12 years? With usually all 30 of those students having mathematically illiterate parents who can't help with their homework?
Every student hears it enough for it to be a widespread sentiment. It spreads like an infection.
I see it a lot on the internet, mostly I'm the young people places. People talk shit on math all the time, just like they do in person. Just slights and jabs that they've never needed the pythagorean theorem or to do an integral, and thus it was all wasted time and effort. You might just not hang around young people much, or at least their online congregations (i don't blame you). The idea that math education is dumb and useless is very much alive in the young adult to preteen tiktokified spaces online
> how often are kids exposed to such stupid talk? I suspect very infrequently
Pretty often, by other kids. And kids listen to kids, not well-meaning, mealy-mouthed adults.