Sara Rimer, a columnist at the New York Times, published an article describing the fear of Math in American culture. She compares math education in American to other countries, such as China, Bulgaria, and Romania. The United States is failing deeply in urging the development of students who have the potential to excel in the field. One of the main reasons for the underdevelopment, Rimer claims, is that American culture discourages students—especially girls—from excelling in mathematics and does not value talent in the subject.
However, in a time where we need students to decline jobs in investment banking and finance and take on engineering and molecular sciences, our culture should be embracing excellence in higher math. The article also cites social pressures as a reason youth stray away from excellence in the classroom—stating that kids are self-selecting and for social reasons, are simply not trying.
The studies on mathematics based on cultures began with the evaluation of standardized tests, such as the SAT. However, the researchers quickly realized that these problems were never intended to show outstanding and versatile math skills—rather they evaluate basic skills. For this reason, the studies moved to difficult and trained Mathematical Olympiads for high school students. The study found that the majority of Americans in these competitions are immigrants or children of immigrants from areas in the world where education, more specifically math education, is encouraged.
Until 1998, all members of the United States math team were boys until 16-year-old Melanie Wood from a private school in Indianapolis made the team. Since then, two female math students have been on the team (immigrants of China) and went on to win gold. While it might seem that this is a strong showing for American students, compare this to Bulgaria—significantly smaller population than the U.S., however they have seen 21 girls to the competition.
The question remains—How was the fear of math in our culture first cultivated? The only reason goes back to the culture of America and the setting of our high schools. There is an image of what a “math nerd” is to be—it seems to be socially unacceptable and as students we have the preconceived notion that math will always be difficult.
