Monthly Archives: October 2019

Maths being Difficult is Not the Full Story

Last weekend, I had the privilege to attend a wonderful conference in Dublin City University called Mathematics Education in Ireland. At the conference, lots of people were complaining about how the media encourages people to see mathematics as difficult. They thought it would be better if people with influence spoke and wrote more positively about maths.

One of the claims made at the conference was that even preschool children are picking up the idea that maths is difficult. Well, I agree that maths is difficult for many people. The problem is that that statement is incomplete. Continue reading