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In reply to the discussion: OH SHIT...Elizabeth Warren just praised Obamacare [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)race or gender. Larry Summers is the one who didn't think women could do math. He should meet some of the women in my family. They do the math.
Math is not a race or gender talent.
I have a daughter who is extremely good at math. It's the basis for her career.
Based on my experience with her, I think that math ability is correlated to stubbornness. Sticking to solving a problem until the end is the key to success in math.
I can be good at math, but I can be awful at it.
Neil deGrasse Tyson disproves any illusions about the ability of black men and math. We need to teach all our kids to be stubborn enough to stick to math problems until they "get it."
Start counting with children when they are very, very young. I started with mine before they were a year old. They need to hear the numbers even more often than they hear their names. And don't be too rough on them when they are stubborn. It's our stubborn streaks that help us learn. We repeat things over and over and insist on repeating them, and that is how we learn. Read the same book over and over to a child. That's how the child learns.
I don't mean to preach to you. I'm sure you already know this. But maybe someone who needs to know it will read it.
Thanks. Sorry if you thought I was suggesting that Obama's math problems were based on race. Please don't forget that Obama's failings cannot be blamed on African-Americans. His white mother was about my age. I look at him as if he could be my son. Maybe that is why I am tough on him at time. His mother would be tough on him about some things, I suspect.