'We hate math', say a majority of Americans

[sweetapogee]

15. most people

do not like what they do not understand. Most in the US do not understand math.

I hated math for most of my life then at age 54 decided to make nice to numbers. I entrolled into my local community college and started with elementary algebra. Last semester I finished calc 1 and gen chem 1. The thing I hated became the thing I love. In a sense I wasted many years hating something I simply didn't understand.

I'm sure my community college is typical of most, they offer basic math, pre-algebra, then algebra 1,2 & college algebra, college trig and calc 1-4. I did a study and found that at the beginning of the fall 2013 semester there were 985 students enrolled in elementary and intermediate algebra. Of those, 96 used the free tutor lab. In my elementary algebra class, 30 students started the semester, 11 took the final and I personally know 3 didn't pass. Intermediate algebra was slightly better, 28 students started the class and 15 took the final. In college algebra, 31 students started the semester and 21 took the final.