Why is it OK to say "I'm rubbish at maths" when...

[Clary]

you would never freely admit to being rubbish at English?

A colleague said this to me today and manyothers have said it before when they ask me to explain how to work out percentages or whatever.

Why is it a badge of pride to say this? I work in an office where people deal with the written word and facts and figures all day. If they couldn't read they would really struggle - but apparently it's OK not to be able to do maths.

If they are really that bad, why don't they do an evening class?

hatwoman, it's gorgeous, lyrical and lovely! Acinonyx, starts with 'T'

bamboobutton - more likely that it may be short term memory processing difficulties. For dyscalculia people have no 'number sense', ie when looking at a number of dots on a piece of paper they have no concept of whether it's 2 or 200 dots.

Of course English is a subject...

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bramblebooks

i cant say 100% what it is as i have never been profesionally diagnosed. but from this website i checked 17 of the 23 questions for dyscalculia.

It's probably more important to look at what the difficulties and strengths are really and to look at what are good strategies to use to help you to do the things you need to do. Useful link, thanks.

MIFLAW - I don't agree that you'd have no concept of maths if you'd never been taught it. You might not call it maths but there would still be stuff you did all the time that would basically be maths. although admittedly quite basic.

I'm also not sure that the modern world demands more maths than a medieval rural community. you could be right - but if you think about a peasant life it involves maths - if you own livestock, and you own a scrap of land, understanding how much food you'll get out of it all - depending on if you plant stuff to feed your animals, or to feed you, whether you breed them, sell them, eat them - all this involves quite complicated arithmetic. and when it makes the difference between feeding your family and not feeding them - you'd better get it right. I reckon people have been doing maths for as long as they've been using language

No, what I mean is that "English" as a subject is based on a knowledge that is expected of us as active members of the community. Of course it goes further but a minimum is essential to participate in the community. To say "I'm rubbish at English" comes dangerously close to saying "I am not willing or able to work socially with my peers."

Maths, on the other hand, is, as hatwoman rightly points out, identified with adulthood and responsibility.

In other words, not to be able to do maths (though of course few people who say that mean that they cannot actually count or deal with concepts of quantity) is a self-deprecating admission that one is not fit for management or leadership.

Not to be good at English (though, again, most people who said that would not mean they struggled with their mother tongue on a communicative level) would be an admission that one is not willing to participate in society - far more subversive and dangerous!

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Bloss

English as a school subject is far more than spoken communication but nevertheless starts from precisely that pre-existing knowledge.

It is arguable whether or not count and shape awareness is taught or innate but, basically, maths starts as an entirely virgin - and therefore entirely taught, subject.

In even the most non-intellectual societies, a child without medical reasons who started school without that basic knowledge of his mother tongue - the basic knowledge that goes onto form the basis of "English" (or its equivalent in other countries) as a taught subject - would be a freak and perceived as such by peers. A child who started at the same point with no basic knowledge of mathematical concepts would not be so judged by peers and may, depending on the society, be able to function as an adult.

As a result - I suggest - society judges differently an admitted weakness in the two "subjects" that grow out of that basic knowledge.

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reminds me of one of dd1's champion strops aged about 4. I said something about the postcard she was writing being a rectangle. she was adamant it wasn't. she got crosser and crosser. the postcard, as she wrote it, was of course landscape-oriented. everything became clear to us when she picked it up, rotated it 90 degrees so that it was portrait and screamed "THAT'S a rectangle". she was beside^ herself with rage.

funny, actually, it's just occured to me that 5 years later she did some cognitive ability tests - the teacher said she did fantastically in maths - except for the more spatial stuff. maybe her brain has got a couple of mis-firing neurons...(although she does not concede the point about rectangles...)

does now concede...

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