No Such Thing as a Math Person

An interview with Mitesh Shah, a 33 year teaching veteran and the current 6-8 grade Math Coordinator and 6th grade Dean of Students at Foothill Country Day School in Claremont, California

Q:  Can you talk a little bit about math anxiety? I'm a parent, and I'm just not a math person. I don't want to project that onto my child. What can I do? 

A. The first thing I explain to all the children and the parents is:
There's no such thing as a “math person”.
It's been debunked. It's nothing to do with culture. It's nothing to do with gender, etc. Anyone can be a math person, and the best way to learn math is to be calm and to be comfortable and to feel safe.

It doesn't matter where you start, provided you have the growth mindset. You know, Carol Dweck author of Mindset: the New Psychology of Success, and Jo Boaler of YouCubed, are two huge Stanford professors who have made a massive difference to try and improve the state of mathematics in the United States, and in California in particular. Both ascribe to the philosophy of having a growth mindset.

I've managed to get through to the students and the parents that anyone can be a math person, provided they believe in the growth mindset and they're prepared to give it enough time.

No one has math anxiety in a preschool. I can promise you that they come into class and they feel that this is a safe space because their teachers create that mindset. They aren’t  a “math person” or “an English person”. The theory of having a natural intelligence for a particular subject has been debunked. It's not true!

From  there we build students up with the growth mindset and the patience and the maturity that it requires.

When they are a little more mature, a student’s reading comprehension and their reasoning skills are huge in math and science. And they're so underestimated!  When they realize that those skills can come into mathematics and are becoming more and more required to be a team player, to find a voice, to be able to communicate eloquently, to conclude every math question in sentences and paragraphs, they go, “Wow, this has changed.”

All of this is what  “integrated math” means. It's just geometry, it's algebra, it's numbers, and it's data --  all together in the same academic year. We do a lot of word problems. Reading comprehension is key. Vocabulary is key and reasoning is key. And then students realize, “Oh, I've got those skills. I can transfer them to math.”

I think that's why Foothill’s approach to mathematics is working, and it's working well. We've got students going into Pre-Calc in ninth grade, some into Integrated Math 3, some into Geometry, some into Algebra 2,, some into IM 2,, which is where they're supposed to matriculate. Five different classes from the same eighth grade, same cohort. And that's because of the confidence that they have, the self-confidence that they've developed over 2 or 3 years in Upper school, and throughout their years at Foothill.”

Want to learn more about Foothill Country Day School?

Foothill Country Day School is a preschool through 8th grade school in Claremont California. Founded in 1954 by Howell Webb as a private independent school, Foothill offers the best education in the Inland Empire. We are educating the next generation of society's leaders in an environment of inclusivity and respect for all cultures. No matter what their talents, or what paths our students choose, they have the tools to become leaders. Get to know Foothill on our website and on Facebook & Instagram.