fierceawakening:

quasistellar-object:

fierceawakening:

wildtypehuman:

fierceawakening:

wildtypehuman:

fierceawakening:

wildtypehuman:

johnnyjoestarrelatable:

you ever been near tears over not understanding math so you look it up online and some fucker is like “there’s no such thing as ‘not being good at math’, just not trying hard enough, sweetie :)”

I think there’s a communication gap here. “I’m bad at math” can cover, at least, (1) “I lack math skills”; (2) “I find it difficult to acquire new math skills,” and/or (3) “I find it way harder to acquire new math skills than other people do”. Telling people “don’t give up, math is inherently difficult but everyone can get better with practice” seems like a potentially helpful response to (1) and (2), but not (3). And I think a reasonable number of people assume that they’re in category (3) when they’re not.

This would not, I think, make it less frustrating to encounter that advice if you’re actually in category (3).

I’m pretty sure I’m dyscalculic, which is why I reblogged it.

Math homework took like three hours. Nothing else took that long.

Not trying wasn’t the problem.

Absolutely agree that “try harder, you’re not bad at math you’re just not trying” is a horribly counterproductive thing to say to a lot of people struggling with math. I’ve tutored people whose brains were profoundly uncooperative with learning math, and 100% think it’s bad to tell people that they’d be good at math if they just tried harder, because that’s mean and incorrect.

But. The process of learning math-heavy subjects, for me, was often bumpy–I would struggle with a concept for a while without any noticable progress, and feel like I was bad at it, then eventually (usually) something would click and I could move forward. So I’m sympathetic to the message of “everyone feels bad at math sometimes, but most people improve with practice” as a statement that is sometimes motivating and helpful–to the right people, in the right context.

It’s frustrating when a statement that’s motivational to one group of people makes another group feel bad. I don’t like it. I’m not sure if there’s a good way to express the sentiment of “even if you feel bad at math in the moment, odds are reasonably good that you are not actually bad at math, and that practice and perseverance will help… but it might turn out that you are actually bad at math, and that’s ok too!”

I unfailingly went to the TA’s office hours when I took math in college. I distinctly remember “I keep explaining it! Why are you still not getting it right?”

Which, you know, grad students have a rough time, I’ve been one! but holy hell did that not help at all.

I have a hypothesis that people who find math particularly easy and intuitive (i.e. many math-heavy grad students) are worse at teaching it–they don’t fully understand what the confusion feels like from the inside or how to respond in a helpful way.

Yep. I had the same problem when I asked friends to help me with my calc homework. It usually ended in “what is wrong with you”

I really wish I’d known dyscalculia was a thing back then.

As someone who is probably generally fairly good at understanding maths concepts, this hypothesis sounds reasonable.
Sometimes when I’m trying to explain something I reach a point where I can’t simplify or break it down into smaller steps because it already seems so obvious to me and I just can’t imagine what the problem is.
Though I would never say “what is wrong with you”, that’s just kinda shitty.

I’m pretty sure my friends were just frustrated with themselves because they weren’t sure how to explain the obvious, a la my momentary confusion when my mom asks me, “so do I send the email by pressing send?”