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PT6A posted:Yeah, being illiterate is seen as shameful, whereas we basically allow even teachers to basically say, "oh, I'm not a math person, tee hee!" I had multiple teachers in middle school and jr. high that wouldn't have been able to calculate marks without a computerized system (I'm guessing even a calculator wouldn't have been enough). Yes. Not exactly in those terms, but it happens depressingly often in my experience. People claim that they're "not into reading" or "they don't read". A college English major even once admitted to me that she "didn't read" without any sort of self-awareness or shame. I'm not trying to say that it's not a problem that people claim that their ignorance or lack of interest in math is the result of some natural inborn tendency rather than a conscious choice on their point, because it's a drat stupid thing to say (barring some form of learning disorder) but it's something that happens with all subjects. People claim that they aren't good at math, reading, writing, art, sports, etc. in terms of identity ("I've never been good at sports", "I can't draw/dance/write", "I hate math", "I've never had a knack for science") rather than treating them like skills that need to be trained and maintained.
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Sep 6, 2014 22:01
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PT6A posted:Lots of people don't read in their leisure time, but that doesn't mean they can't read. I'm not going to defend it as an excellent life choice, but it's better than basically being illiterate. Many people seem to revel in their innumeracy, though, which I find a little disturbing. This is really a minor quibble, and for the record I think you're pretty much correct on this at least partly stemming from the way we teach these subjects, but your comparison between illiteracy and people who say "I'm not a math person" isn't quite correct. I mean, people who say that can do at least general and basic math. Much like how a person that says "I don't read" has at least basic reading skills, the mathematically disinclined can almost always do basic arithmetic and maybe even some light algebra. Sure, they might stare at you in bewilderment if you ask them to calculate a percentage or multiply two fractions together, but you'd probably get the same reaction if you asked them to spell or define some simple words. If someone didn't even know how to add two numbers together or count, like they didn't even understand how to do the most basic things, that would be closer to a complete illiterate and I imagine it would be treated pretty similarly to how we treat illiteracy.
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Sep 7, 2014 06:03
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