Math Trauma Isn’t Really About Math

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.

Math trauma tends to be less about math and more about someone asking you to do advanced maneuvers before you’ve mastered the basics.

Imagine going to skating lessons, and your coach tells you to skate backwards on one leg, despite the fact that you can barely hold yourself up on one leg.

So you try, and you fall over, and coach just tells you to try harder, maybe sprinkling in some vague advice that you don’t really understand.

You try and fail over and over again. And coach just tells you, it’s not that hard, you’ve been on the ice before, you should be able to do this if you try.

Nevermind the fact that there is a massive prerequisite gap between what you’re able to do and where coach expects you to be.

Whether it’s math, skating, swimming, whatever, that kind of experience would be traumatic for anybody.

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.