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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not understand why some people thinks its funny/acceptable to not be able to do simple maths

140 replies

leandro · 01/03/2011 14:27

I was talking to a group of women at playgroup this morning and one was talking about wanting to get a part time job. I said look at shop work and she said she'd like to but that she doesn't do numbers and so couldn't do it. Another one said I don't do them either and she has to get her husband to do anything mathematically related.
I don't get it, if you said I can't read then people would be Hmm so why is it acceptable to be hopeless at arithmetic.

OP posts:
FabbyChic · 01/03/2011 14:28

A lot of people are not comfortable with maths, just because you can do it doesn't mean anybody else can.

People have always asked how I can work with figures, I can becaue I like them, some don't, but I don't patronise them.

reinitindear · 01/03/2011 14:29

Did you watch Matthew Wright this morning by chance? Smile it was a topic on there.

Original poster
leandro · 01/03/2011 14:30

Fabbychic- Its a basic skill though

reinitindear- No I didn't watch that horrible man.

OP posts:
reelingintheyears · 01/03/2011 14:30

I thought the tills did all the arithmetic for you in shops theses days.

That said i'm crap at Maths,i can work out the shopping and stuff but anything that strays into long division and fractions and stuff makes my head spin.

YouCantTeuchThis · 01/03/2011 14:31

OP, maybe I am getting the wrong end of the stick but, surely you have just given a good example of why you wouldn't Hmm at someone who proferred up their weaknesses (whether reading, writing or arithmetic) within a group.

If the women had actually said, I can't read very well so I couldn't do that job, would you be Hmm?

Or were they just being feckless?

reinitindear · 01/03/2011 14:31

I think not being able to read isn't something I would be Hmm about either.

reinitindear · 01/03/2011 14:32

Sorry just your op was nearly word for word at the introduction of the subject.

scurryfunge · 01/03/2011 14:32

I don't see the need to pull faces at anyone who may have a learning disability, tbh.

Thingumy · 01/03/2011 14:32

It's the same as people not being able to spell.

Anyway you don't need any mathematical skills to work in a shop,the till does it all for you.

TheFarSide · 01/03/2011 14:33

I think some people have an irrational fear of maths - they think they can't do and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Like reading, it is a skill which can be learned so I agree with the OP. There is no good reason why most people shouldn't be able to cope with everyday maths.

reelingintheyears · 01/03/2011 14:35

I think the quality of early years teaching has alot to do with basic skills such as reading and maths.

We had an awful Maths teacher who was quite scary and i was always scared of Maths...

So i switched off.

We all read loads at home and at school and i had a lovely,kind English teacher.

So i was good at English/reading.

gretalse · 01/03/2011 14:35

YADNBU, unless you have a learning disability then there is no excuse for not having basic literacy and numeracy.

ShowOfHands · 01/03/2011 14:36

If it's unacceptable to not be good with maths, what do you suggest people who aren't naturally inclined to understand maths do?

I never understood maths. It didn't make sense to me. I was in the top set because I would spend hours and hours and hours and hours working and reworking things in a by rote fashion until it was right. It never made sense, it never came naturally. I would cry with frustration that I couldn't understand it. I was very, very fortunate to go into my GCSE year with the most fabulous teacher who taught me how to do maths using a different part of my brain (logic). She was patient and kind and the reason I have a GCSE in maths. But had I never met her I'd be breathing a sigh of relief that I could choose as an adult not to have to persevere with something I struggled with so much. Acceptability doesn't come into it. I'm a wishy washy humanities brain that will never understand numbers in a natural way.

missmapp · 01/03/2011 14:38

This is alot to do with the general perception of maths we have in this country. For some reason it is far more acceptable to say you are rubbish at maths than to say you cant read or write- I wish I could understand how we could change the fear and attitude people have towards maths, I have tried lots of diff strategies when teaching, but it is a mere drop in the ocean

Bucharest · 01/03/2011 14:38

I suppose it's the same as the people who boast about not knowing grammar.

Plenty of those around too.

(I just find numbers dull, dull, dull....was told at school after yawning through Maths O'level that I could do the A'level if I wanted, but jeez, I can't be done with all that black and white it's either right or wrong malarkey. With words you can have a bit of a bunfight at least Grin)

ShowOfHands · 01/03/2011 14:38

Aah spelling is different to basic skills. The science behind it is interesting. Either you can spell or you can't. You can work at it and fight to learn words individually but spelling is something that you 'get' or you don't. That's putting it in simple terms. It's complicated but spelling isn't something that's as straightforward as not bothering to learn.

octopusinabox · 01/03/2011 14:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

reelingintheyears · 01/03/2011 14:40

Sorry but i don't agree gretalse.

I think there are many reasons why some people lack these skills.

Poor teaching is only one.

Lack off support at home is another.

Poor concentration through lack of something as basic as not having breakfast.

Lots of children grow up with varying difficulties that lead them to under perform in school.

BadRoly · 01/03/2011 14:41

I think a lot of it is perception too - "maths" sounds intimidating but if you asked someone who is "bad at maths" to see if they can buy 3 items priced x,y and z with a fiver, they probably could do it easily - but that isn't "maths" to them.

Pinkjenny · 01/03/2011 14:41

I was (and still am) completely rubbish at maths. I find it neither funny nor acceptable, nor am I embarrassed about it.

reinitindear · 01/03/2011 14:41

ShowOfHands that is exactly the problem dd1 has at the moment I am looking at a tutor who supposedly takes a holistic approach to teaching to try and help dd1 when she moves to Secondary in Sept.We have to endure near panic attacks with math homework at the moment.

reelingintheyears · 01/03/2011 14:43

ShowofHands....

I love words and knowing where they come from and how they have evolved.

I agree that spelling is something that you just 'get'.

I just sadly didn't 'get' maths.

gretalse · 01/03/2011 14:43

reelingintheyears- If you underperform at school and so don't gain them there as an adult there are simple steps to rectify a persons lack of literacy or numeracy skills.

FluffyMuff · 01/03/2011 14:46

I struggled for years and years with maths. I left school with a GCSE grade D and to this day I don't know how. My parents got me a tutor, I would sit and go over it with him but he'd leave and it would all just be letters and symbols on a page.

Because I excelled in all my other subjects (with the exception of physics - go figure!) I could not be placed in a lower 'set' than Middle for maths. So I was placed with average ability children in a subject I was struggling immensely with. So I got bored, lost interest (teacher couldn't care less) and then disruptive.

Fast forward to me being 25 and realising how hard I was finding basic maths, I went back to college and got help - ended up resitting my Maths and Science GCSE's and came out with a B in Maths and a C in Science - both grades had been D's.

The main reason I achieved the B was because I had an amazing tutor who (as another post said) made me look at things differently - on my terms. I can't explain why I had to do certain things but I knew how to do it and the method to use to achieve the end result IYGWIM.

I also had personal motivation and a desire to lose the stigma (perceived or otherwise) that comes with being a 'thicko'.

I don't think people believe that it is acceptable to fail in maths, I just think they have no other way of justifying why they find it difficult so make light of it to deflect criticism.

Ormirian · 01/03/2011 14:47

I hate to say it but it does seem to be seen as a 'male' skill, so being a bit of a doofus at maths is seen as feminine and ditzy and in some way acceptable. No, I agree that not everyone can be educated to A level standard but simply mental maths should be possible for anyone without learning difficulties.

And I was appalling at maths at school - didn't even scrape a good enough CSE, let alone O'level, but it clicked for me in the years since. Because I had to use it. It's a normal life skill. It is largely common sense but people decide they 'can't do it' and think that's OK. It isn't.