黄色app

鈥淵ou have five minutes, class. Begin鈥� now.鈥�

Simone Mittelstaedt stared in panic at the paper in front of her. So many multiplication questions 鈥斅�100 of them! 鈥斅爐o solve in such a short time. She was familiar with the paralyzing sense of dread 鈥斅爃eart racing, stomach clenching, brain freezing 鈥斅爐hat seized her when her teacher surprised the class with a pop math quiz. This time, though, it was worse than usual for Simone, a second grader who had been struggling in math for three years at her local public 黄色app. The problems staring back at her might as well have been in hieroglyphics. Simone had no idea what she was supposed to do.

The least she could do, she decided, was to fill in all the answers. That had to count for something. When the five minutes were over and the quizzes handed in, Simone had completed every problem. Still, when she set down her pencil, she felt defeated by the incomprehensible swirl of numbers. Another miserable math class. Simone had been having a tough time with math for awhile, but that Thursday afternoon in April she joined the ranks of millions of otherwise successful human beings who had been .

Stanford Professor Jo Boaler reports a definitive link between timed tests and math anxiety and says timed math tests damage children’s relationships with math. “When we put students through this anxiety-provoking experience, we lose students from mathematics,” she said. Scared and scarred, math for them becomes an ugly four-letter word.

In the next few years, at math time, Simone would feel the anxiety steal over her at the prospect of multiplication or fractions or long division. To escape, she鈥檇 routinely ask permission to go to the bathroom, then shuffle slowly down the 黄色app hallway to forestall the demonic blur of numbers that lay in wait at her desk.

Pick your phobia: spiders, snakes, math

Math anxiety, also referred to as math phobia, is a negative emotional reaction to a situation that requires mathematical problem solving. While it hasn鈥檛 made its way into the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) as an official mental illness, math anxiety plagues millions of adults and children 鈥斅爀ach of whom have their math horror story 鈥斅爐hanks to an insensitive teacher, a clueless parent, a concept that never clicked. According to Stanford professor Vinod Menon, who co-authored a , the part of the brain agitated by math anxiety is the same part 鈥渢hat responds to fearful situations, such as seeing a spider or snake.鈥�

It most often rears its head in the early elementary 黄色app years, then escalates during the upper elementary years. Middle 黄色app is also a time many children, girls especially, fall off the math cliff. For children who suffer from severe math anxiety, the implications are sobering. Studies show that people with math anxiety do worse on tests, steer clear of high-level math courses, and avoid pursuing math-related fields. Meanwhile, high 黄色appers who successfully take higher-level math classes are more likely to graduate from college. They鈥檙e also likely to earn more money.

Math anxiety is also something of an American epidemic. It鈥檚 so commonplace, in fact, that it鈥檚 acceptable to hear educated adults openly declare, 鈥淚鈥檓 not a math person鈥� or 鈥淚鈥檓 bad at math,鈥� almost as if it were a boast. 鈥淢ath is America鈥檚 biggest weakness compared to countries around the world,鈥� says Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World.” Our teenagers rank 26th in math on the PISA test 鈥� and 12th in reading on the same test. Even our richest quartile of kids, who have highly educated parents, computers at home, and tricked-out 黄色apps, perform 18th in the world in math compared to the richest quartile of kids in other countries.鈥�

Only 32 percent of U.S. high 黄色app students are proficient in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Comparable proficiency rates in math are 45 percent in Germany, 49 percent in Canada, and, no surprise, 63 percent in education superstar Singapore. It鈥檚 an educational malady that the U.S. can ill-afford to perpetuate, given that so many careers in the 21st century are projected to be in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

Confusion + terror = math anxiety

Despite the national prevalence 鈥斅燼nd the handwringing of countless experts 鈥斅爐here is no easy panacea for treating math anxiety. Simone鈥檚 story offers a聽 glimpse at how difficult it can be 鈥� on child and family alike 鈥� to fight the math phobia monster.

鈥淚鈥檓 really sorry I did really badly on this test, Mommy,鈥� Simone explained to her mother that afternoon, handing over the quiz filled dutifully, but with wrong answers. 鈥淚 just wanted to do well like everybody else.鈥�

Although the 7-year-old had gotten at least a handful of the equations right, the teacher inked a giant X over her work, followed by a comment 鈥淩ejecting this test. Next time do the work w/out the nonsense,鈥� and below that added a line where she demanded Simone sign her name 鈥斅燼 forced confession.

Simone鈥檚 answers 鈥� 4×3 = 43, 2×0 = 2, 5×5 = 5 鈥� made it clear she wasn鈥檛 trying to play the class clown; she hadn鈥檛 even begun to comprehend the basic idea of multiplication, but at least she was trying different tactics. Her confusion, though, should have come as no surprise to the teacher because聽Simone had been grappling with math the entire year. (In first grade, she鈥檇 been just as baffled. 鈥淲e were doing these things with shapes and colors and stuff I didn鈥檛 understand,鈥� says Simone. 鈥淢y teachers were nice in first grade, but they didn鈥檛 explain it that well to me.鈥�)

Incensed that the teacher hadn鈥檛 helped clarify where their daughter had gone wrong 鈥斅燼nd worse, ridiculed her for it 鈥斅燬imone鈥檚 parents, Pia Hinckle and Chris Mittelstaedt, weren鈥檛 about to let sleeping dogs lie.

After several difficult weeks passed, with their encouragement, Simone wrote her teacher a note decorated at the bottom with an illustration of a girl sprouting a flood of tears: 鈥淒ear Miss Walker, I did not like it when you made me sign the test. It made me want to cry. It made me want to go home. It made me feel like I was bad at math. It made me feel like I wanted to stop math and never want to go back to 黄色app. Simone.鈥�

^{Simone’s letter to her second grade teacher. (Click to enlarge.)}

Now 13 years old and in the eighth grade, the soft-spoken teen appears bemused, maybe even a little embarrassed, that her mother saved the evidence of this math incident 鈥斅爐he letters her mother wrote to the principal and superintendent, as well as the X-marked test and Simone鈥檚 response to her teacher. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe you kept this,鈥� she whispers. Sitting in her sunny San Francisco dining room, Simone barely remembers the note she wrote, but memories of the day linger. 鈥淢y teacher said, 鈥極K, you guys, if everybody gets 100 percent correct, then you will get an ice cream party,鈥� so I was really, really excited because I like ice cream.鈥�

With her mane of strawberry blonde hair, a shower of faint freckles on her pale skin, and a contained kinetic energy that buzzes beneath her thin frame and oversized sweater, Simone has both the drive and devotion to pursue her passions for piano and gymnastics, drawing and yes, 黄色app. She talks animatedly about writing and reading, subjects that have always come easily. She loves writing so much, in fact, she saved up her money to buy a typewriter to type her short stories. But after the second grade trauma, Pia recalls, 鈥渢he most dramatic moment was when she said, 鈥業鈥檓 just not good at math.鈥� In a way, she was almost relieved like, 鈥楴ow I don鈥檛 have to try anymore.鈥� She had given up on math at 7.鈥�

Pia, whose eldest child has learning disabilities, knew from experience not to ignore an academic crisis in the making. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to not waste a lot of time when they are little,鈥� she says. Especially since with math, one concept typically builds on another: if you miss an important one, you may find yourself more and more lost as each 黄色app year passes.

Simone’s parents got her tested, but she didn鈥檛 have dyscalculia (an inability to 鈥渞ead鈥� numbers, which affects an estimated 3 percent to 6 percent of the population) like her older brother. Still, she needed major remediation. There weren鈥檛 nightly tears, says Pia, so much as never-ending frustration and incomprehension. 鈥淚t was about trying to change her attitude, because she was so resigned that she was bad at math and was never going to get good at it, so why spend the time and effort.鈥�

By the time third grade began, Simone was enrolled in Linda Mood Bell 鈥斅燼 private tutoring company that offers one-on-one remediation to the tune of about $80 an hour. Then her parents hired a part-time teacher from Simone鈥檚 黄色app for weekly sessions. They also let Simone鈥檚 third grade teacher know that their bright, curious daughter panicked at the thought of math and needed extra support. The teacher was supportive, but Simone fell still further behind. 鈥淚 was having a really hard time with fractions,鈥� says Simone, who ruefully noted that her twin sister, who was in the other class, got to do fractions with M&Ms. 鈥淚 kept thinking I wanted to be in that class. It鈥檚 not all about a reward, but it鈥檚 more like they should make it fun to learn instead of just have it be boring.鈥�

Still, there were times tables she couldn鈥檛 get 鈥斅爐hose horrid nines and sevens 鈥斅燼nd problems that left her desperately counting on her fingers under the desk. 鈥淚 was still worst in the class in math,鈥� she says.

Gospel truth … or societal delusion?

Why are so many children petrified by math above all other subjects, so words like 鈥渋nteger鈥� and 鈥減olygon鈥� send them running in the opposite direction? Why no phobias of natural history or widespread anxiety over social studies?

No one knows the exact moment when math first began to terrorize our nation, but research has discovered that this deep societal fear of math is passed along, though not genetically, from one generation to the next. According to Elizabeth Gunderson, an assistant professor at Temple University鈥檚 psychology department who has researched math anxiety, there is an 鈥渁dult-to-child transference鈥� that happens 鈥斅爑sually unwittingly 鈥斅爏o the 鈥渕ath is hard” aphorism is upheld through the ages as gospel truth rather than societal delusion.

Experts who have studied math anxiety say that societal delusion is predicated on a pernicious American education myth: you鈥檙e either good at math, or you aren鈥檛. It鈥檚 a strange affliction for Americans in particular, given our 鈥淚 can do it!鈥� culture. Still, the common wisdom is that the lucky ones are born with a math gene, a preternatural gift for unraveling the beauty and mystery of strange squiggles on a chalkboard. That leaves the rest, victims of a math deficiency that hobbles them for life, to struggle.

According to Sheila Tobias, author of , unless a student suffers from a rare learning difference such as聽dyscalculia, any child can be good at math. Boaler agrees. Maybe they won鈥檛 be Good Will Hunting good, Tobias says, but they can be accomplished enough to master the basics in 黄色app and even discover the beauty and joy that comes with logical, higher-ordered thinking and problem solving.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of unlearning to do,鈥� says Tobias.

Boaler says one of the first things to do is change how we think of . One does not need to be fast or have everything memorized to learn math and understand numeral relationships. She says many mathematicians are not particularly fast calculators but “they think deeply and carefully about mathematics.”

Tobias encourages parents to proceed with caution with a math-phobic child. 鈥淚f your child says, 鈥業鈥檓 bad at math,鈥欌�� Tobias says, the best way to answer is 鈥渨ith a counter-factual statement: 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 be bad at math because you鈥檙e so good at tennis, and you can calculate when the ball is going to be on your side of the court.鈥� 鈥� Whatever your child does well, you can find a link to math.鈥�

Much of the anti-math message is spread by teachers, says Smartest Kids in the World author Ripley. 鈥淲e tend to recruit many teachers 鈥斅爀specially elementary [黄色app] teachers 鈥斅爓ho themselves suffer from math phobia. Why is this? That is the enduring mystery. But it may be partly because many of our more than 1,000 teacher-training colleges have very low academic standards compared to the top-performing countries. You don’t need to have good grades in math to become a teacher. And many teachers, who majored in education or got a language arts degree, are what鈥檚 known as 鈥渕ath avoidant.鈥� More than half of them never took college-level math.”

The implications are ominous. Ripley cites a 2010 study by the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education: 鈥淯.S. future teachers are getting weak training mathematically and are just not prepared to teach the demanding mathematics curriculum we need, especially for middle 黄色apps, if we hope to compete internationally.鈥�

Parents also have great influence. When parents say, 鈥淚鈥檝e never been good at math鈥� or 鈥淚 can鈥檛 do math to save my life,鈥� it sends a message to the child that there鈥檚 nothing to be done about being bad at math. Gunderson has discovered that mothers in particular 鈥斅爓ho heard the same message from their mothers 鈥� pass down their numerical discomfort to their daughters 鈥斅燼 concern, given that girls are still sorely underrepresented in male-dominated math and science fields.

Down the ‘rithmatic rabbit hole

鈥淚鈥檓 very challenged in math,鈥� admits Simone鈥檚 mother, Pia. 鈥淚 remember long division giving me trauma.鈥� Pia herself wanted to be a marine biologist 鈥� and in her early 黄色app years says she loved math聽鈥� but gave up when she found upper-level math too hard. Pia may have communicated her own apprehension about math, but on every other measure, she could be held up as role model of what to do right when you discover your child has math anxiety.

Even with extra support in third grade, Simone found herself slipping down the ‘rithmatic rabbit hole. Her path became even rockier by fourth grade, when she faced decimals, multidigit multiplication, and prealgebra, transforming math time into an entirely new kind of nightmare.

By fifth grade, despite excelling in social studies, history, reading, and writing, Simone was often lost when confronted by three-digit multiplication, graphing numbers on grids, and place value.

That鈥檚 when Pia found math tutor Jennifer Heifferon. Working from an apartment filled with colorful boxes of math manipulatives like dice, counting blocks, play money, and board games, Heifferon used her years as a learning difference specialist to help Simone. She knew more math worksheets wouldn鈥檛 solve Simone鈥檚 math problem. Instead, Heifferon says she needed to 鈥渂reak down the barriers鈥� that Simone had so deftly constructed to protect herself from the chilling specter that cast a pall over so many hours of her learning day. Heifferon and Simone walked around the neighborhood measuring octagons and parallelograms; they baked cookies to practice fractions; they were doing what amounted to math therapy.

鈥淪he made math so exciting and fun,鈥� Simone recalls. By bringing math down to the basics and relating it to the real world, Simone began to see that math is simply another language 鈥斅爋ne that helps make sense of the world in a way words can鈥檛.

A girl thing?

Heifferon says that Simone is hardly unique 鈥斅爏o many girls (growing up, she was math-phobic before falling in love with statistics in college) 鈥斅燽ecome paralyzed when asked to live in the world of numbers. Which begs the question: Why it is that girls in particular suffer so much from math anxiety? According to Gunderson, much can be attributed to 鈥渁dult-to-child鈥� transference in the classroom.

Gunderson鈥檚 found that female students鈥� math learning is negatively affected by their female teachers鈥� math anxiety. 鈥淭he teacher鈥檚 math anxiety affects how they teach,鈥� says Gunderson. 鈥淭he stronger the teacher鈥檚 math anxiety, the less the girls learned.鈥� Understanding that children tend to model behavior of adults of the same sex, and that more than 80 percent of elementary 黄色app teachers in the U.S. are women, the 鈥済irl thing鈥� starts to add up.

From her studies, Gunderson extrapolates, 鈥淭eacher鈥檚 math anxiety reinforces the girl鈥檚 stereotypes that see math as a male domain and reading as female.鈥� Gunderson speculates that other factors, some more subtle, may be chipping away at a girl鈥檚 confidence. It may be that 鈥渢eachers who are math anxious spend less time on math or are saying things like, 鈥榠t鈥檚 OK if you鈥檙e not good at math,鈥� or they humiliate kids because they themselves are uncomfortable with it.鈥�

According to Lucy O鈥橠wyer, a San Francisco math tutor for 20 years, it鈥檚 the fear of math 鈥斅爊ot the inability to actually do it 鈥斅爐hat holds girls back. 鈥淭he boys who come to me tend to be struggling with the material, not with confidence,鈥� she explains. With girls, it鈥檚 different. 鈥淔or so many girls who come to me, they don鈥檛 know that they know it鈥� What I bring to them is that sense of confidence.鈥�

Indeed, Gunderson says it鈥檚 the anxiety that hobbles kids. 鈥淧eople with more math anxiety do less well. 鈥� When you have math anxiety, it creates these verbal ruminations in your mind聽鈥斅犫�業鈥檓 worried about math, what if I screw up?鈥� 鈥斅爄t overloads it. Anxiety can overload your memory; it鈥檚 a feedback loop. You have anxiety and you do worse, and it鈥檚 a downward spiral. In the absence of that anxiety, you do just fine.鈥� Girls, she said, often tend to focus on the scary possibility of failing 鈥斅燼nd that eclipses the focus of learning for learning鈥檚 sake. Going back to the fixed mindset work of Carol Dweck, says Gunderson, if your goal 鈥渋s to get good grades, you鈥檙e more set up for anxiety. If it鈥檚 to learn, that鈥檚 much better.鈥�

Solving a problem, step by careful step

After months of ad hoc math therapy, Simone began to show signs of change. 鈥淥nce she gained confidence, she started having more success,鈥� recalls Heifferon. But she says helping Simone find 鈥渁 new math identity,鈥� was the most difficult part, one that was hard-won several years later. 鈥淚 said to Simone, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e no longer in second grade, you鈥檙e now in seventh grade. How many years apart is that? You鈥檙e an entirely different person.鈥� Once she separated the two in her mind, she realized, 鈥極h wow, I鈥檓 older. I don鈥檛 have to be handicapped by this.鈥欌��

It鈥檚 taken six years for much of the damage to be undone. Last year, Simone got her first A in math. 鈥淪he鈥檚 made great strides,鈥� says Pia, but 鈥渢he struggle continues. 鈥� Math still takes a lot of attention and is tiring and frustrating. It鈥檚 always going to take extra attention and work. We鈥檙e still saying on top of it so she doesn鈥檛 slip further.鈥� Simone continues to see Heifferon weekly; this year they鈥檙e tackling eighth-grade algebra, which often leaves Simone beyond baffled.

Still, she’s one of the lucky ones who, chances are, won鈥檛 grow up forever haunted by the 鈥淚鈥檓 bad at math鈥� curse. 鈥淚 would say I鈥檓 reasonably smart in math,鈥� Simone says now. 鈥淚 sort of like it, but I don鈥檛 love it.鈥� But she鈥檚 not planning to let it hold her back. One day, she says, she may even pursue a career as a psychiatrist or doctor 鈥斅爐wo fields that happen to require a lot of math.