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I'm not a math teacher, but I do enjoy math, and I have helped several family members and friends with math courses.

I've long thought that almost all have the capability to learn roughly high school level math, though it will take more effort for some than for others. And a key factor to keep up a sustained effort is motivation. A lot of people who end up hating math or think they're terrible at it just haven't had the right motivation. Once they do, and they feel things start to make sense and they're able to solve problems, things get a lot easier.

Personally I also feel that learning math, especially a bit higher-level stuff where you go into derivations and low-level proofs, has helped me a lot in many non-math areas. It changed the way I thought about other stuff, to the better.

Though, helping my family members and friends taught me that different people might need quite different approaches to start to understand new material. Some have an easier time approaching things from a geometrical or graph perspective, others really thrive on digging into the formulas early on etc. One size does not fit all.

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sethammons 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

One size doesn't fit all is what I believe Common Core math is attempting. The part that it misses is that a student should probably be fine demonstrating one modality instead of having to demonstrate them all

	▲	vundercind 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		> The part that it misses is that a student should probably be fine demonstrating one modality instead of having to demonstrate them all I cannot overstate enough how consistently and extremely this has turned my kids off from math. 3-for-3 on absolutely hating this. Having to solve the same thing five different ways just pisses them off, and, like... yeah, of course it does. They want to finish the work and go play and it feels like you're just fucking with them and disrespecting their time by making them solve the same problem several times, even if that's not the intent.

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o_nate 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I also have long felt that anyone who has the ability to read and write at a high-school level in their primary language also has the mental capacity to learn to do math at a high school level. As a pedagogical challenge, I think the main stumbling block for most people with math is not the complexity of it but rather the dryness of how its taught. The rules of language are at least as complex, but many more people learn language at a high-school level than math. There are lots of reasons for that, most obviously language is used more in people's every day lives.

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cchi_co 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Effort, combined with the right motivation, can overcome most perceived barriers

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magicalhippo 5 days ago | parent [-]

It sounds like trivial insight, but at least in my experience many adults and even teachers have this "it's hard so it's ok to not want to do it" attitude towards math. And I think that is very detrimental.

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gammalost 5 days ago | parent [-]

Well, isn't that a summary of most things? Most things worth learning are hard, but many things not worth learning are also hard. So we have to prioritize what hard things are worth learning. Math is low on the list for many people for (I think) understandable reasons.

	▲	pokerface_86 4 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		math is low on the list then they bitch that they’re unemployable with a soft skill degree doing middle school level work. i get this is ironic as a pure math student is also fairly unemployable without extraneous skills, but they also tend to shine the brightest once they make it in.
	▲	magicalhippo 5 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		What I meant was I think it's detrimental to be priming the kids with a negative view, or nurturing any negative views.