“I never want to hear anyone say to my daughters ‘I’m not a math person’ or ‘my brain doesn’t think that way,’ because I believe these messages can reinforce the idea that you have to be born to be a math and science person. And that’s just not true.”https://m-gat.es/2jGMlhK
As usual, misguided incentives are to blame. Mathematicians do not care about the teaching of mathematics, and do everything they can to avoid engaging in it, or even thinking seriously about it. They're not penalized for this; they're rewarded. So mathematics teaching suffers.
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If mathematicians hold the teaching of mathematics in contempt, and care only for the practice of their art, then they hold still more in contempt those who choose to devote themselves to teaching. Teachers learn little from disdainful mathematicians.
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So the mathematical knowledge of teachers is scant, and the schools of education do little or nothing to augment it. Lacking both mathematical knowledge and confidence, teachers impart to students a debased and fragmented picture of the subject -- along with an antipathy for it.
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