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

[leandro]

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 so why is it acceptable to be hopeless at arithmetic.

Maths does not come naturally to me. I have always disliked that fact as I am good at almost everything academically speaking. It just makes no sense to me beyond the very basics. I get quite embarassed about it in company, but it is a very common problem which is probably why it is taken more lightly than literacy problems.

A problem shared is a problem halved. A problem shared and joked about is a problem quartered. So YABU.

Ha! I summed my post up with maths.

working out change is not maths.

I think its representative of the x factor culture we live in. WAGS and footballers are idolised. Academics are geeks and deserving of scorn. Intelligence is not valued.

OP, assume none of the ladies you were speaking to had/blamed any learning difficulties?
My observation is that a lot of people (dare I say mostly ladies) are being self-deprecating about their maths, and I am one of them but it also frustrates me.
Surely most of us can add a few numbers and know the times tables?

Ormirian - but I find all that with words perfectly sensible, where I find numbers difficult

if I try to add, 9 + 23 + 16 (for example) in my head, it's a vague, some, is my first thought... lol, then there's a lot of concentration and possibly some fingers involved and I come up with 50ish, then I have to whittle it down to the actual exact answer...

if I want a word that has a certain meaning, I can use any that mean something like that and it's fine - I like that, it's much better

I like the fluidity, I can do that where I struggle with the exactness in maths

Indeed, I am very bad at working out change etc, and DP was incredulous the other day when I accidentally said 9*2 was 16 not 18 (I do this sort of thing all the time).

However I have First in maths from a good university, and am now doing a maths-heavy PhD at a very good university (and worked for an investment bank in between). Once you get past a certain level in maths it's not really about numbers at all but about abstract concepts and ideas and having a beautiful elegant language to describe extremely complex scenarios in a simple and concise way.

Maths does not equal arithmetic. And maths is most certainly not boring .

For some reason you don't find many men saying, with a self deprecating little laugh, "Oh, I'm not very good at maths..."

Either men are a lot better at maths than women, or women get a kind of validation of their femininity by being bad at a "boy's subject".

I think it's the latter, myself.

Excuse me, diablo but I have no desire to be a WAG. I am just terrible at maths.

Or a footballer, actually

Of course intelligence is valued, but maths really is one of those things that is not intuitive to many people.

It's like how some people can sing beautifully, others adequately and some really can't sing at all.

The latter are the X-Factor types

Wow Ephiny impressed by the maths you're doing
I was talking about arithmetic (and so was OP)

But the 'I find' in the sentence says it all If you asked an alien who had just beamed down to earth to make sense of an English sentence, he would struggle. Give him a sum and he'd be fine!

You need to 'learn' words by using them. Numbers just are.

BTW I love words and language too. I am fascinated by the twists and turns they make and how you can totally change the meaning of a sentence by changing a single word. But I am just as captivated by numbers and the patterns they make.

I agree with Diablo

Sorry, wasn't trying to impress anyone, just saying that there's more to maths than mental arithmetic, and that being bad at working out change etc doesn't mean someone is thick or whatever.

Maybe I should sit down and learn my times tables . I think I was put off by being grilled by teachers/parents as a child so now I just panic when I have to work something out...

i am awful at maths, i am an "arty farty" person as my step dad would say, i excelled in english, art and fluffy subjects, maths and science just were not compatible with my brain, wasnt for lack of trying either, i ate breakfast, i had a private maths tutor and i still didnt get it, it was like reading martian.
instead of my parents understading and praising the things i was really good at, they fixated on the maths, my step dad had a degree in maths and would be drilling it into my skull aged 11 getting angrier and angrier, not understanding why i wouldnt get it.
to this day i suspect he thought i was just being insolent.
it drove a wedge between me and them, they were maths people i wasnt.
im still not.
i dont think everyone has to be good at everything, i think everyone has different skills, i am bright, have a decent job for my lack of qualifications, and lacking any kind of maths skill has not made me a lesser being than someone that is a maths genious. i do however see a lot of people i work with and my family judge me over it and not understand why i dont get the things they do.
i dont understand this, they cant play flute, write glorious poetry or paint masterpieces, and thats ok.
but if someone cant do long division, its not. i dont get it myself.
i fear maths, however i chose to work in an evironment with plenty of it around.
its called feel the fear and do it anyway lol.

Arithmetic just takes practice and some thought re strategies. Have any of your DCs been taking part in today's World Maths Day? That encourages fluency with basic arithmetic and is great fun too.

"Academics are geeks and deserving of scorn. Intelligence is not valued"

have you seen this thread diablo?

I just cant get my head around mathematics. I make a joke of it because it is embarrassing. Especially so because I work in a shop.

I get quite embarassed if I get a simple sum wrong. I am ok with maths (got C at GCSE) but still make silly mistakes at times. Sometimes I also write telephone numbers down wrong.

"Numbers just are."

not in my head they're not

they move, lol

and aliens might not 'get' numbers either, rofl

Chances are they probably will, you're right, but I genuinely think that some people just aren't cut out for maths.

It does seem to be socially acceptable for women where it's not for men though, which is odd.

I find it genuinely embarrassing that I can't add or do multiplication in my head and I would tend to laugh about it (because of that)- and I often feel the need to justify myself by saying that I can do the complicated stuff.

So I'd imagine it must be pretty awful to be a man that can't do maths.

I think it's because more people are incompetent in maths, because it's dependent on one particular teacher, and one particular type of lesson.

You might not like English as such, but lessons like: history; geography; sociology; politics; even languages where translation is involved, will all help you with English. They will reinforce the lessons learned in English, as they involve studying certain texts. Only certain subjects like physics will help you with maths.

And then, in adulthood, you will be reading books; or newspapers; or even the most basic job will require the ability to send a professional email. You will gradually improve your literacy.

Not quite so with maths.

I'm crap at maths - I've tried to 'get it' I just don't. My brain isn't wired in that way.

It would be very hard to get through life without being able to read or write - however getting through life without being able to do maths is very easy.

I think it's a real shame people think that ability at maths and ability in creative subjects are exclusive, or even inversely related. It's fallacious and harmful.

oh I don't think people are good at just one or the other, I know some people are good at both, or equally not good at both

I just also think that it's completely possible to be bad at one - without it affecting the other at all

I have a jolly good excuse and I roll it out everytime I am in a situation where I am panicking over a simple sum.
I was very good a mental arithmetic when I was 9, then we moved and the teacher handed me a 'magic square' I knew as I was being handed this thing that it was cheating. I remember not wanting it, but the teacher was very scary and she said everyone had one. I was new and I didn't want to be different or to hold everyone up, so I took it.
It was a downwards slope from there, because, not long after, I was handed a calculator.
I distinctly remember thinking that my last school was better, that I had been better in my last school

Saying that I did get a 1 in my standard grade, but she was a ^fantastic teacher! I had no idea I was that good cos it hadn't seemed hard.
The school insisted that I continue on to do my Higher. But the teacher was worse than useless and what do you know a grade A student got a D!!

I know I can add, I just need a minute. Sometimes a wee bit of paper, but if I feel pressure I just go all blank and feel very dim indeed.

Saying that I have worked in many shops a few of which didn't have tills, or at least he didn't want everything rung through, just the totals. We had a big scribble pad for it, and I never felt a huge amount of pressure. I just took my time and made sure it was right.

I do use my DHs brain as my own personal calculator from time to time.
I am trying to wean myself though.
He talks me through it sometimes too. Sometimes laughing at me, sometimes being genuinely helpful.

tabulahrasa, by spelling is different to basic skills, I was challenging the assumption that it was something everybody can learn. I think maths is the same, as I argued originally. I don't and never will get it but I've found ways to manage it.