I hope you realize that some of us worked really hard in school but somehow couldn't understand what was being taught in our math classes. I'll be 40 this year and plan to return to college. I never finished because I failed a remedial college math class and it made me feel like I did in high school, like I was just too stupid to get it. If you can't meet the math requirement, you can't get your degree so what was the point? That's how I felt. I wanted to be a scientist as a young boy but in about 7th grade, the math became too overwhelming and I felt my teachers were unresponsive to my questions. They thought I was just wasting time with loft questions but I really couldn't move forward without understanding the concepts. This struggle with listen-repeat learning vs. conceptual learning lasted throug high school and made me hate math even though I was always still "interested" in it. I just couldn't grasp the concepts and this got me sneered at by math teachers and belittled by classmates, pushing me further away from the subject. I hired a private tutor two years ago when I fist thought I might go back to college and she helped me break through that pre-algebra wall. Now, here I am, 37 years old, studying pre algebra. Felt petty silly at first. But now at least I know I wasn't wrong for asking questions. Now, here I am, close to 40 and finally ready to face that fear. I'm sure at my age it's too late to become a scientist or engineer but I've since developed other academic interests and look forward to meeting those goals. I just wish the internet was around in as robust a form in the nineties. We had internet at my school but it was pretty rinky-dink, Prodigy, Encarta, a few slow-loading websites, some BBS forums and chatty rooms for the kids who liked Star Wars or Tolkien...It was nothing like this!
I hope you realize that some of us worked really hard in school but somehow couldn't understand what was being taught in our math classes. I'll be 40 this year and plan to return to college. I never finished because I failed a remedial college math class and it made me feel like I did in high school, like I was just too stupid to get it. If you can't meet the math requirement, you can't get your degree so what was the point? That's how I felt. I wanted to be a scientist as a young boy but in about 7th grade, the math became too overwhelming and I felt my teachers were unresponsive to my questions. They thought I was just wasting time with loft questions but I really couldn't move forward without understanding the concepts. This struggle with listen-repeat learning vs. conceptual learning lasted throug high school and made me hate math even though I was always still "interested" in it. I just couldn't grasp the concepts and this got me sneered at by math teachers and belittled by classmates, pushing me further away from the subject. I hired a private tutor two years ago when I fist thought I might go back to college and she helped me break through that pre-algebra wall. Now, here I am, 37 years old, studying pre algebra. Felt petty silly at first. But now at least I know I wasn't wrong for asking questions. Now, here I am, close to 40 and finally ready to face that fear. I'm sure at my age it's too late to become a scientist or engineer but I've since developed other academic interests and look forward to meeting those goals. I just wish the internet was around in as robust a form in the nineties. We had internet at my school but it was pretty rinky-dink, Prodigy, Encarta, a few slow-loading websites, some BBS forums and chatty rooms for the kids who liked Star Wars or Tolkien...It was nothing like this!
Maths still makes me anxious!!! I refuse to do maths because of this
i fail every time in it