Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/adult-perceptions-of-their-abilities-in-math/5017452/
Mary’s storyI was in my fifties when I decided to revisit arithmetic. I was considering teaching in public elementary schools, which meant passing a basic skills test since I needed to get a credential. The idea of a math test scared me a lot. So I took myself off to an adult school that offered remedial math for grown-ups.
Math always baffled me. It started with fractions. I just couldn’t figure out how big numbers could mean little pieces. I learned to dread the teacher’s impatience or scorn. By fifth grade I knew that I wasn’t good at math. It was okay not to be good at math. I was a girl, and girls didn’t have to fool with that hard stuff. A high school algebra teacher said as much, after watching my increasingly intense struggles with polynomial equations. He made a deal with me that he would pass me out of the class, if I quit taking up so much time asking questions to which he couldn’t make me understand the answers. I gave up trying, buried my fear and incomprehension, and moved on.
Now I was going to have to face it. The pleasant woman who greeted me at ...