In my previous post I share the conclusion that;
We are deeply affected by our relationship with mathematics - at the DNA level, where chemistry, energy and physics interact to create the Life Force.
I personally have witnessed in many children a deep and long lasting negative impact on this Life Force, due to math learning. In actual fact, I was able to easily diagnose trauma due to math learning. There are obvious cues that are both visible and interrogable if you simply ask the right questions to math students, to indicate the validity of this fact:
In many cases math learning causes trauma to students.
Symptoms of trauma include:
Emotional & psychological symptoms:
- Shock, denial, or disbelief.
- Confusion, difficulty concentrating.
- Anger, irritability, mood swings.
- Anxiety and fear.
- Guilt, shame, self-blame.
- Withdrawing from others.
- Feeling sad or hopeless.
- Feeling disconnected or numb. (source)
In a diabolical sort of way - it is almost comical how well a lot of us (adults) can actually relate to these textbook symptoms of trauma in the direct context of math learning. For us, its probably funny to think about this, as adults, looking back at the trials and tribulations of math learning in high school. For teenagers, as you can remember directly from personal experience or from memory of low-confidence and low ability students seriously struggling with it - math induced trauma causes serious problems in learners often manifesting in bad behavior.
The point is this:
Students do in fact exhibit textbook symptoms of trauma in direct relation to math learning - and this has a direct impact on our DNA.
As radical as this sound, there really is a significant proportion of students who are traumatized math learners. You just have to observe in context, and ask the right questions of maths students, past or present. In my best estimate, depending many variables about 1/3 to 2/3 of all public school students exhibit symptoms of trauma due to math learning.
Where does the system go so wrong?*
It really is so simple. It all comes down to the prefrontal cortex and the lack of it in math students in primary school. So the problem starts in primary school and here's why:
Primary school teaches math topics that are abstract in nature, such as percentages math, and fractions.
The fact is that most (if not all) students do not have the physiological/mental capability of understanding the addition of fractions (for example). This is due to the lack of a pre-frontal cortex in primary school children.
We may as well, in a sense, be teaching math to goldfish.
Of course, 1/2 + 1/2 is easy to visualize and not abstract... but 2/8 + 4/5 suddenly becomes more difficult to see. Compounding the difficulty is the long multi-step procedure to actually solve the problem. Please take another look at the image we use for this thread. It is very revealing about the difference between an adult human brain and a child's brain in relation to mathematics:
When a child is taught, or forced to do something that they are not physiologically/mentally capable of doing, conflict can and often does arise. This leads to trauma and thus long-term negative impacts on a human's Life Force.
Why are not all children affected? Again, it all comes down to DNA -but also and most important, natural habits. Habits which can be learned explicitly to improve a child's ability to learn in general. In my next post I will break down the three general types of math learners and clearly identify the single biggest traits that allow success in mathematics.
*Please do not mistake this thread as a diatribe against the school system. The system does many things well, and my point is very specific, not grand sweeping accusation or finger pointing. The reality and point is that math education must catch up to the contemporary understanding of brain development in relation to understanding abstract math.