Math Anxiety and Me

Hello again friends! As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this blog is for one of my university courses. This same course recently required me to read an article on how people almost brag about how bad they are at math. I will provide a link to the article here:

Hollywood's Math Problem

Now before I get started on deconstructing this article I want to make a quick point. It is rare that I thoroughly read an article or text that is provided to me in class. Despite this, I couldn't help myself from genuinely being interested in this article and reading it to the end (which is an accomplishment in itself). Given that it can't be longer than 750 words. my accomplishment isn't much to brag about, but it has to count for something, right? The point is if you haven't opened the link and read the article yet, I strongly recommend you do it now. Why do I think this article is so important? The whole time I was reading it I could not help but think to myself how true it is. I could call upon countless situations where acquaintances of mine have made jokes at their own expense about how they are incapable of doing any form of math. At this point the majority of people nearby agree, so we all hold hands and sing kumbaya because none of us can count past 10.

And they lived happily ever

Except that nobody lived happily ever after, because there are a couple things really wrong with this picture, the first of which is that almost everybody is capable of doing basic math. So why are we both lying and bragging about the fact that we can't do so? The second is that whether you like it or not, having a basic understanding of math is essential in day to day life. Society isn't asking you to calculate the probability that Jimmy pulls the ace of spades from a deck then successfully does a back flip, we just want you to know how to correctly tip your waitress so that everyone can leave the restaurant happy.

Now the biggest question about this anomaly is why? Why are people proud of the fact that they "can't" do basic math, and furthermore making jokes about it? In my opinion, the center of this problem is math anxiety. Math anxiety is a feeling of tension, apprehension, or fear that interferes with math performance. Put simply, math can be intimidating. If you don't understand a concept, it can be very overwhelming and this causes students to be anxious. What happens when students become anxious? Their performance is hindered, they are unable to focus and from here math becomes increasingly overwhelming. From here we continue to stumble down the dark spiral that is math anxiety.

And the next thing you know you're four years into your math degree and regretting every life decision you ever made

Math anxiety is often times why people cut themselves off from mathematics. This is where you start hearing things like "Math just isn't for me", or "I'll never understand math, so why bother putting the effort in?". I believe that this is the foundation that causes people to avoid any form of math within society, and simply boast to others about how you can't do math instead of trying to solve a problem. It is easier to avoid a problem than be embarrassed failing to solve it. Although I have never suffered from math anxiety, I understand where people who suffer from it are coming from. I am drop dead awful at soccer, you will never see me kick a ball because I have no motor control of my feet. If you ask me why, I guarentee you that I'll laugh it off and state that I just cant do it because that's how I am. Have I ever put the effort forward to try and learn how to play soccer? Never, because I would rather avoid the whole situation than have others see me try and embarrass myself. I'm not trying to organize a pity party based on my lack of athleticism, I'm just wanted to make an analogy which would express how math anxiety works and how it relates to the issues covered in this article.

Math anxiety is becoming an increasingly larger issue in society. The people who have the largest affect on this problem are those who teach it. Math anxiety is a serious issue and it is one that I plan to address within my classroom. Now I could spout off poetry about how my future classroom is going to be perfect, how I will diminish math anxiety with my magical engaging lesson plans, proceeded by a herd of unicorns waiting outside my door to escort students to their next class.

In a perfect world

Unfortunately it's not that easy. I don't know how I will tackle an issue such as this within my classroom. Fortunately I have plenty of time to figure it out. If we're lucky I'll be able to make another post about my progress with math anxiety.

Until next time.