your attitude to maths

[JessJones93]

ive just started training as a teacher and i am working through the maths unit, i have luckily always just taken a shine to maths (probs also because of my maths teacher dad) but lacked confidence in more essay based subjects (like english) and average public response is to take more confidence in essay based subjects and take a general dislike to maths - i don't really understand this because, as i said, i grew up in a maths loving household which seems to be the polar opposite of many houses in the UK

what about you? it would be really helpful to me if you could share your attitude to maths and why you have that opinion (bad maths tuition at school? boring? etc) and do your children have a similar opinion on the subject as you?

thanks :)

If a teacher of my daughter called her rubbish at anything I'd freak out bigtime!

Sorry to be picky but there is enough teacher bashing on Mumsnet without an OP (from a teacher) that fails to use capital letters correctly, amongst others sins.

KTK9 for your DD, no child should be called "rubbish at anything" at the tender age of 5/6.
I would like to think that such teachers are in minority, ones that like to crush child's confidence with lasting ill effects for life.
DS now in the final year of A levels, is going to continue with his mathematical studies for a degree, able mathematician who always got support and praise primarily at school, but also at home.
Confidence in maths is everything and majority of teachers are miracle workers when it comes to boosting child confidence, especially in subject such as maths.

That is picky Rose.
I think that most of us would rather that the teachers engendered an understanding of maths, and showed empathy to those who obviously struggled. That would be higher up most people's lists than using capital letters in an out of school activity.

I also think those sort of teachers are in a minority. Her Year 2 teacher in her new school was absolutely brilliant and did a huge amount of confidence building and encouraging her to be positive.

This years teacher is the same and although dd still struggles a little, I know she has support and encouragement so will do her best.

Underthebelt Rose, typing or using a keyboard on a message board - especially if you are on a phone or Ipad, is totally different from in the classroom, or a letter to parents.

Not really. There are plenty of threads here about "My child's teacher can't spell/punctuate/write" and there is an impression given by not writing correctly that it is OK to do that some of the time. Writing should always be correct. I use my phone and an iPad to write messages but would never miss capital letters out. This is not a small mistake that could easily be forgiven but a really big red flag in writing terms.

I will now run away from this board and hide. However, I am absolutely certain I am not alone in finding this kind of error quite unacceptable. In fact, there are plenty of error free responses on here which are from people who are, no doubt, also fighting with technology.

I am more on the scientific/maths side, whereas dh, although good at maths is more of a humanities person. Dd1 has stuggled with maths, but when I started doing extra maths for 10 min an evening it gave her the confidence she needed, and in one year has gone from second lowest group in yr2 to top group in yr3. Dd2 is good at maths (only just in yr1) and ds is counting with 1 to 1 correspondence up to 8. He was 3 at the weekend.

I have heard it said that your attitude at age 7 to maths colours your confidence throughout school, whether it is cause or effect is obviously hard to assess, but I do think it is important to give fairly young children confidence, as believing they can do it seems half the battle.

My mum was a maths teacher and my dad was reasonably competent at basic maths. Computation came easily to me but I didn't find it very interesting. I loved more abstract maths and did a maths degree.

My 13yo is not brilliant at computation but can do it to an acceptable standard for her age. There are just a few more things I think she needs to understand before I would say she has "enough" basic maths to cope well as an adult. She doesn't particularly enjoy it but she doesn't fear or dislike it either. She quite likes abstract maths and logic puzzles and says she might want to be a mathematician. Personally I don't think she has the passionate love for the subject which would keep her focused on it, so I don't think that will happen. But I'm glad she thinks it could be an enjoyable hobby.

My 6yo is exceptionally bad at maths due to a learning difficulty but she doesn't know that yet and I have no intention of telling her. She doesn't have any opinion of maths yet. I don't think she quite knows what the word means, and nobody makes her "do maths" (she's home educated and I have a low-pressure approach). I hope that by continuing to tackle the subject as she is interested and at the right level for her, she will never learn to fear maths or think it is something she "can't do".

I did like maths and was good at it until A' Level, when we had a very bad teacher who would teach only to those who "got" it first time (mostly some extremely clever boys and a couple of girls) and take absolutely no notice of people like me who were struggling. I got an E in the end and still remember the feeling of helplessness of being completely ignored in lessons. Things could have been been so different with a good teacher.

I was reasonably good at maths and my dh very good.

I think most people can grasp it if it's taught at their pace. Which is difficult with the large groups in the lower years of primary.

My dd (7) quite often comes home and says she didn't understand a word of it. But if someone goes through it with her, one to one, she can get it.

Her last teacher was aware and made an effort to check she was managing. Her teacher this year hasn't realised this yet so we're getting the "I hate maths" again. Something I'll bring up at parents evening next week.

At our school very little maths was done in reception year and I felt it was such a shame as her maths deteriorated over that year. I know teachers have to stick to the curriculum but the standard to attain for reception is so low. I can't remember but it's something like the ability to count to ten, which quite a lot of dc can do by the age of 3. When you think some reception dc will be nearly 6 by the end, it seems a really low standard to me.

I decided, or perhaps it was decided for me, that "I wasn't a maths person". We're talking infant school - not A Levels! From then on, it was of course a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I've been working desperately hard not to pass this particularly crap legacy to my DCs. We do lots of pattern finding, shape, puzzles, problem solving, money mangement... etc. DS1 is now starting to think that perhaps Maths is his thing.

Have you seen this book? I found it really interesting and I think it would be relevant to the sort of questions you're asking. The Elephant in the Classroom.

I was never that good at maths, not terrible but I didn't really "get" it - I went to a selective private school and managed to scrape a "B" at GCSE, but would never have considered going on to do it for "A" level. English and essays were my thing anyway!
DS however is only 4 but is fab at maths/numbers, working about 2 years ahead and I would go so far as to say he is obsessed with numbers and calculations, he loves it! I have no idea where he's got it from as DH was similarly average at it.
My Grandpa on the other hand is very good at maths and my Aunt (my mum's sister) has a first class hons maths degree from Cambridge, so clearly there's a maths gene there somewhere!

I'd love to be good at maths and take no pride in being crap at it. There are a number of reasons I struggle with maths. No one in the family with maths ability to help, army brat so 8 different schools missing chunks of syllabus, some dreadful teachers.

I really struggle to 'get it'. I failed A-level chemistry which I should never have been allowed to take with my poor maths ability. I have got a 2.1 in Biology and I'm a qualified accountant despite the cold blooded terror I feel when I see an equation. I had to be bloody brilliant at everything else though.

Part of my problem is that I'm really slow to get maths techniques and the class couldn't wait for me to keep up. I got turned off maths at about aged 9 as the teacher was in to quick fire quizzes with a sticker for the fastest pupil. I was always last. I'm very methodical and would probably have succeeded at a longer problem. I got kicked down a set in 3rd year senior as my highly intelligent maths genius teacher refused to help me and that was that.

DH is similar to be in that he struggles with figures but is now in a very numerate job. His colleagues can't comprehend of his struggles with the mathematical modelling they have to do.

If my DDs struggle as much as I did they're getting a private tutor.

I had the most wonderful maths teacher at the beginning of secondary school, she was kind and patient and would have me and a few others in at breaktime or lunch to explain something we hadn't got properly.
Then we had an incredibly sour, horrible woman for the next year who was so mean to me that she triggered a panic and asthma attack in her classroom and the walls just went up. I remember sobbing at the kitchen table over my maths homework. English never posed the same problem, but perhaps that was the teacher more than the subject.

Now, trying to help dd with her maths homework, I actually enjoy it. She's not comfortable with some of the methods they use so we find other methods she does like to get to the answer. She's a very practical girl, so adding to subtract say, doesn't appeal and she prefers a much more straightforward approach.

I've always loved Maths, and did well at it at school. I was also good at languages, foreign languages that is. I liked the fact that you learned grammar rules and vocabulary, and didn't need to learn big chunks of facts like in history. I didn't like history, I was interested in the subject, but hated essays. I did ok at English, although I didn't like it. I hated literature, although I have always loved reading for pleasure. I've always enjoyed computers and IT too. I ended up doing a degree in modern languages.

DH was a typical underachiever at school. He's not stupid at all, but there wasn't much drive or encouragement from his parents. They were very loving, but didn't see education as a high priority. He now works in financial planning.

Both my DC do quite well at school mathswise. Elder DC has just got an A* at GCSE, and younger DC has always got great reports from teachers, more so than DC1 in fact. I have always told them how much I love Maths, so hopefully that has rubbed off on them!

I've never found anyone else whose best subjects were languages and Maths. I would love to find that I'm not the only one!

A fascinating subject, and one I often ponder these days.

DH is from a solid scientific background - father was an engineer, mother trained (but never qualified, due to early marriage/dc) as a nurse. Both DH and his sister studied maths or related subjects at Oxford.

Both my parents left school before taking any qualifications BUT my dad joined the navy and rose to a high rank because he was such a brilliant engineer. My mum's dad won a scholarship to study maths at Oxford shortly before WW2 but was never able to take it up, due to poverty/family commitments. My mother eventually became an accountant.

So you'd think I'd be good at maths? No. Both my brother and I are relatively crap. I was in top sets at school until I was 12, then we moved house and the curriculum at the new school was completely different. The mental shift required to go from a very traditional syllabus to SMP (which I still think of as 'modern maths') defeated me. Perhaps it bored me. I don't know but, from then on, I clung to my strengths in arts and humanities.

Dd1 (Y4) is a talented writer and in top set maths, but not terribly interested in it. Dd2 (Y3) is bloody brilliant at maths, in line with her heritage. I try very hard not to let dd1 coast along on the strength of her literacy skills, but she seems to have set her face against maths already. I'd love her to learn to love it, but it's not really my thing and I'm afraid she's already decided she's 'Literacy DD' and her sister is 'Numeracy DD'.

(Obviously I do nothing to encourage this...or, at least, I try...)

I have a positive attitude to it, my oldest whos just started reception loves numbers so obviously I have to encourage him with it. When I was at school I would say I leaned more towards the arts/humanities kind of subjects more than maths and science but have always enjoyed maths to an extent, because I puzzles, logic and all that kind of thing. My dh always liked maths in school and did a degree in maths, so overall we are more of a maths loving household but will have to see how the younger 2 get on with it when they are school - I hope they like it

everything you've written here is fantastically helpful, the main themes seem to be:

1. if you aren't naturally good at it, and had a parent/teacher that took a 'shouting' approach to try to guide you towards understanding it, it has in general scarred you for life against maths
2. if you a naturally good at it you tend to enjoy it aswell

and also parents who enjoy and are good at maths tend to have children that are good and enjoy it to.. the question here is nature/nurture I guess, are you born with a brain that tends towards logic and numbers or are you more creative and enjoy english and subjects where you can create pieces of subjective 'art'.

just as a side note to parents who hate maths and want to get involved with their children's maths homework, or even parents who were good at it but don't understand the new methods taught in school... my auntie showed me a book she's bought to help her help my little cousins with their homework, i've read it and it's fantastic: "maths for mums and dads"

forgot to expand on that nature nurture thing lol, are you born with being good/bad at maths or does your parents opinion, teachers style and other environmental factors push you towards enjoying or disliking maths..

I have always loved Maths.

Since becoming a primary teacher, I have often commented how lucky I am that every class I have taught have absolutely loved Maths. I stopped saying this recently, though, when a colleague pointed out that every class I teach love Maths because I love Maths. It rubs off on them.

Also, almost every child I have taught who has had a bad attitude towards Maths, has a parent who, at parents evening, would say something along the lines of "Oh yes, I always hated Maths. I tell ... not to ask me to help with homework because I'm rubbish at it." It seems that parents can inadvertently pass on this attitude.

I've always been rubbish at maths and hated it throughout my youth. I've really enjoyed seeing my kids learn though, it seems so much more understandable in the way it is presented these days.

Dh prefers English. I prefer maths. So far 1 dc prefers maths and the other English. Not sure on little one. I don't like reading and get bored easily listening to the kids. Maths on the other hand I could listen to that all day long!!!

It's socially acceptable to proclaim you don't 'like' maths. When I first started teaching, I even said this to my students (I cringe at this now).

I have modified it now to share how hard I found it, but really enjoy learning it, as it is more rewarding when you succeed at something that you find difficult. I think this is the correct attitude to promote to young people.

My mum spent a lot of my childhood telling me how bad she was at maths and so I thought I was bad at it too. I scraped a GCSE pass. However as I have got older I realise I am rather good at it even if I do say so. I have made a real effort to tell the children how much I like maths and so far they are both doing well in it.

People make assumptions about maths being hard which I think is detrimental to their natural aptitude and ability. Maths has a part in all of the processes that go on around us but if you try to learn something with the preconceived notion that you'll be crap then obviously you'll be self fulfilling

If you just see maths as a part of life then you remove the mystique about it and you'll appreciate it more.