OVERCOMING MATH ANXIETY
Chapter 2. The Nature of Math Anxiety:
Mapping the Terrain
The first thing people remember about failing at math is that it felt like sudden death. Whether it happened while learning word problems in sixth grade, coping with equations in high school, or first confronting calculus and statistics in college, failure was instant and frightening.
Mathematics is not "fuzzy," mathematicians insist. But it is often taught "fuzzily." Students who experience such difficulties feel they are just dumber than everyone else, but in fact they may be smarter. A mind that is bothered by ambiguity - actual or perceived - is not usually a weak mind, but a strong one. This point is important because mathematicians argue that it is the learner - not the subject (or its teaching) - who is imprecise.
When most of us learned math, we learned dependence as well. We
needed the teacher to explain, the textbook to drill us, the back
of the book to tell us the right answers. The greatest value of using simple calculators in elementary school
may, in the end, be to free pupils from dependence...
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