The Myth of "I'm Bad at Math"

Intelligence is a broad statement. One’s ideal of intelligence can greatly differ from another. The Websters dictionary definition is, “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations”. Everybody is capable of being intelligent whether it be in social skills, art, or math. Many people believe that they can’t be intelligent in math or they will never be. That’s not the case. Everyone is capable of being intelligent in math. You may not be intelligent in every aspect of math, but you will be in certain areas. The mind can be molded and change over time. If you practiced, your skills in math will increase.  

In the article “The Myth of ‘I’m Bad at Math’” written by Miles Kimball, Noah Smith, and Quartz states, “Different kids with different levels of preparation come into a math class. Some of these kids have parents who have drilled them on math from a young age, while others never had that kind of parental input”. This statement holds a lot of value when it comes to math intelligence because it’s all based on your influence and how hard you are put to work. Students whos parents have encouraged their kids to excel in math tend to score better on math tests due to their exposure at an early age rather than those who have not had that exposure. The article also says,” The unprepared kids, not realizing that the top scorers were well-prepared, assume that genetic ability was what determined the performance differences. Deciding that they “just aren’t math people,” they don’t try hard in future classes, and fall further behind”. This statement is what makes or break kids. Kids are more perceived to judge themselves harshly based on what other kids are doing. They then develop self-esteem issues that later on in life effects them significantly. It is why kids say they don’t like math or they’re not good at it because they judge their skills based on what they see around them. It’s sad because the students that do good had more exposure than the kids who do poorly. If the kids who did poorly were to then be exposed to doing math and learning more about it, they would see an improvement. The article also claims, “So why do we focus on math? For one thing, math skills are increasingly important for getting good jobs these days—so believing you can’t learn math is especially self-destructive.” I agree with this statement because math is everywhere whether we like it or not. Most jobs require math today. So, when you claim defeat so early in life you are really only hurting yourself. It makes you less likely to incorporate math in your work life, which will hurt your chances at getting a job. It would then make you feel inadequate and lower your self-esteem even more.  

That’s why it is important to learn to do math at an early age. You don’t have to necessarily like math, you just need to know how to do it in order to enrich your life.  You can gain the intelligence and it would help you out in the end.