[Serious] What are your overall opinions on people who are idiots in math?

[Angrboda]

We tend to look down on people who are bad at things, regardless of the thing. I suspect that's an evolved response. We seem to be especially hard upon people who are bad at things who attempt them anyway. It doesn't seem very nice. But perhaps it's for the best.

[Anomalocaris]

Ah! Good to see another idiot in math! lol

Math also annoys the living hell out of me.

Three kinds of people in the world, mate - those who understand mathematics and those who don't.

Boru

Discrete mathematics!    Didn’t think you had it in you.

[Jehanne]

I suck at math, having been classified as being "mentally retarded" in elementary school. After being told by some teachers in junior and early high school that I would never be able to study "higher math", I started studying calculus just after my junior year in high school, after checking out this cheap calculus book from my local (Sumner) library. No chapters on limits, just derivatives and integrals; little theory but lots of applications. After six weeks of daily studying often outside in the hot humid evening I took the ACT exam, having no idea of what score I would get. I got a 32, scoring in the 99th percentile.

[arewethereyet]

Regular math is something I use every day as a bookkeeper. Algebra makes me cry and I am sure anything more advanced would make me want to slit my wrists.

When I went to college a few years ago, I had to take and pass two Algebra classes. Enough finally clicked, with lots of work on my part, so that I was able to get the credits I needed and actually did well.

I really think that if my HS teacher had a clue how to teach Algebra, I'd have done better. But nuns are often assigned where they need a warm body and are not necessarily placed according to their skill.

[Fireball]

Regular math is something I use every day as a bookkeeper.  Algebra makes me cry and I am sure anything more advanced would make me want to slit my wrists.

When I went to college a few years ago, I had to take and pass two Algebra classes.  Enough finally clicked, with lots of work on my part, so that I was able to get the credits I needed and actually did well.

I really think that if my HS teacher had a clue how to teach Algebra, I'd have done better.  But nuns are often assigned where they need a warm body and are not necessarily placed according to their skill.

I've seen that many times in the education biz. When I taught at a Waldorf school, no credential was required. Some of those "teachers" were more like babysitters. It was an incredible disservice for those children. When my sons were matriculating through elementary school, some of the teachers weren't good at math. The teachers who knew it and could teach it were used for those subjects. It was a Magnet school. Los Angeles Unified School District isn't all bad.

[polymath257]

A perspective:

“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”

― Robert Heinlein

In my experience, there are very few people who *cannot* do math. There are many that are not willing to put in the work required (whether due to lack of interests, lack of time, lack of good resources, etc). And it may well take going back to elementary school and really learning arithmetic before tackling algebra, trig, and calculus.

But it is also true that for many people the amount of time spent in learning the language of math will have minimal reward. Anything through algebra is simply learning the alphabet. Calculus is basic reading. It is only much later that you get to good literature and poetry.

[Jehanne]

Dr. James A. Lindsay says that Analysis is "Calculus growed up".

[arewethereyet]

A perspective:

“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”

― Robert Heinlein

In my experience, there are very few people who *cannot* do math. There are many that are not willing to put in the work required (whether due to lack of interests, lack of time, lack of good resources, etc). And it may well take going back to elementary school and really learning arithmetic before tackling algebra, trig, and calculus.

But it is also true that for many people the amount of time spent in learning the language of math will have minimal reward. Anything through algebra is simply learning the alphabet. Calculus is basic reading. It is only much later that you get to good literature and poetry.

I really think my math issues go back to my HS experience.  Even several of the super smart kids in my class were being tutored by the older brother of one of them who obviously knew how to teach.

The first time I attempted Algebra, I passed the first semester and failed the second.  The next year I signed up again and requested the other Algebra teacher who seemed to be able to teach to even the dimmest in our grade.  Instead, I was put back with Sr. Francis...no amount of begging on my part would change the minds of the admin.  Again, I passed the first semester and flunked the second.  So I spent two school years to get 1/2 a credit.

I know I use Algebra when I am doing certain bookkeeping tasks and also when I design quilts.  I refuse to refer to it as Algebra though.  I think I have math PTSD.  

[Jehanne]

Algebra is just arithmetic with letters.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

My maths are poor for the same reason my gardening skills are poor: I don't like it well enough to get good at it. I'm good with arithmetic, fair with algebra and (very) simple trigonometry.

I had to pass a basic calculus class for my degree, and I did. The third time I took it.

Boru