Math Anxiety

I just read a story about a new study that shows that female teachers may pass on their math anxieties to their female students. The study found that first- and second-graders whose teachers were anxious about math were more likely to believe that boys are hard-wired for math and that girls are better at reading. As the mother of a second grade girl I find this troubling, but not surprising. Any time I hear a woman say, "I'm not good at math," I just cringe. It seems like the worst of the self-fulfilling prophecies. If you think you're bad at something, you will most likely fail. I have a good friend, very successful, who also has a second grade girl, and she has often remarked at how "bad she is at math". It drives me crazy. It's almost as if she's giving her daughter an "out". Well, if my mom is bad at math, then maybe I am too . . . or at least it's not such a big deal if I am.

I recently read the book, "The Myth of Ability" by John Mighton in which he describes his own early failures with math and his new theories on how it should be taught and how every student can flourish. One of the obvious concepts is that students must grasp certain basics before moving on to more challenging topics. I'm sure millions of students struggle with multiplication simply because they never memorized their math facts (you know...5+3 = 8, 5 + 4 = 9, etc.). If the foundation isn't there, it makes it really difficult to build upon.

I don't believe my daughter's 1st and 2nd grade teachers have math anxiety, but who knows -- maybe they do. However, I do know that her primary female role model - me - has always reinforced that math is fun and important. Hopefully, that message is sinking in.