Notes on math literacy
How often have you heard someone say: “I’m just not a math person?”
People are reluctant to say they are illiterate but proud to share their low math identity.
We tend to think of math as a subject that’s accessible only to certain types of people. But that’s a false assumption, and it’s holding back achievement for far too many students. With the right instructional approach, everyone can learn and do math. There is no special “math gene” that naturally makes some people better at math than others.
Students come into school with differing levels of math preparation. Some have parents or guardians who have introduced them to foundational concepts and skills.
Some have had no exposure. The well-prepared students perform better at the outset of K-12 learning and the underprepared students struggle to keep up. Thus begins the fallacy that some students are “math people” and some are not.
