Not good at math? – I don’t buy it!

Let me change the way you think about math. You don’t have to love it but stop saying you can’t do it.

Society needs to just stop!

If you’ve followed me on Twitter or read previous newsletters, you know I have some beef with society as a whole and societal expectations. I just came across an Instagram post that talked about math trauma. Of course, it was gone before I could like it and I wasn’t able to find it again.

Anyway, it prompted this newsletter. I don’t have a plan. I’m just writing what comes to mind. It makes me sad that there are so many people out there who limit their potential because they’re not good at certain things. In this case math. I mean looking at possible future jobs, seeing they require certain math skills and dismissing them right away because of that – this seriously makes me angry. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming that person. I’m totally blaming society and the big math lie!

I love math

Full disclosure – I’ve always loved math. I’m a total numbers person. I love patterns and math puzzles calm my brain down. Having said that, I’ve also spent hours and hours and hours practicing those skills. I had the interest to begin with yes, but still needed to practice in order to get really good at it.

Just think about people who are “good at languages”. It’s not like they just wake up one day and speak a new language. Even if languages come so-called “easy” to you, there is a LOT of effort involved anyway. Same with math.

Look at math like a foreign language

Whenever students came to me complaining about not understanding math, but reading entire books in a foreign language and excelling in speaking that language, I asked them one simple question: did you pick up a book in English, not understand a word, put it away and decide you just don’t get it or did you put in the work so you can now understand the language?

I sometimes feel like people treat math like opening a book that’s written in Chinese for 2 seconds, not understanding a word and giving up. Chinese takes years to master, and you start with the smallest parts. You need to understand the basics first. It’s a long process. Anybody can do it if they’re willing to put in the hours.

Normalize not understanding it right away!

But with math people think if I don’t understand it right away, I will never understand it. I feel sorry for those people. It’s normal not to understand how to solve a math problem. You need to practice A LOT and do a ton of exercises until you get it. Just like you learn vocabulary and grammar when learning a language. You don’t just understand it. You look up words and try to remember them. Then when you hear a word you just learned – there’s no feeling quite like it.

A math teacher will usually give you points for your thought process as well. If you can show your work and where you got stuck, you’ll get points for making it that far. Then you try again. Nobody says it’s easy but society telling us “you’re not good at math” is basically telling us we’re not good enough and as you know I have a real problem with that. Stop limiting yourself because you’re not good at math – if you want to, you can totally do it. Treat it like a foreign language and put the hours in. You might end up enjoying it. Who knows.

Final thoughts

And before anybody complains - I’m not talking about people with medical reasons that prevent them from doing math. I’m talking about your regular person who’s been told by society that not being good at math is a thing. Not enjoying problem solving – sure. Not liking numbers – of course (you could focus on those letters too 😉). Not wanting to put in the time – I get that. Not YET understanding it - totally legit.

I’m just not good at it? NOPE, not buying it. Sorry!

And one last thing for the women who have been told “women are not supposed to be good at math” – think about it this way: we’re good at so many things, if we’re also good at math that scares certain people. Let’s scare the sh*t out of them!