How to break free from maths shame

The scene was all too familiar: My mother, my maths assignments spread across the table, and me, sobbing miserably because I couldn't figure out if selling 150 watermelons was a profit or a loss.

- BY LAKSHANA N PALAT

My tutors came and went - some gave up, others I fled - but they all said the same thing: "Maths is just logic; you need to think it through." But I really couldn't think through lightning falling at a particular angle and craft a coherent triangle out of it.

When given the choice, my last tutor, with a sigh, told me to give up on mathematics.

Even 20 years later, maths equals embarrassment and shame, something to be packed away in a dark closet. Dubai-based homemaker Samrudhi Sen shares my horror of the subject, and is rather grateful that her husband is the one who can explain maths problems to her two children. "I will never get algebra right," she chuckles.

Maths shame is quite real, as the two of us will vow. But why, though?

Why maths triggers shame

Carolyn Yaffe, a counsellor and cognitive behaviour therapist at Medcare Camali Clinic in Dubai, explains. "Maths often triggers feelings of inadequacy or shame - more than other subjects - owing to the expectations of society." There's a high value placed on quantitative skills, as well as the competitive nature of maths education. It's one of those subjects where people compare themselves unfavourably with peers. You may feel that you aren't good enough when you don't grasp a concept well, blaming your own abilities rather than seeing that foundations could possibly be weak in the subject.