Who's afraid of....

I think that is so sad OP. I think there is a cultural thing which tells us not only that maths is hard, but that it is not cool to be good at things. My DH is about to embark on a masters in a subject that is little understood. "What's he going to study?" people say "xxx" I say, "it is a branch of applied maths"
I think only one person has expressed any positivity at all (someone who has a maths degree) - for the rest - and there have been dozens - they have all expressed some disgust or horror at the mere thought of studying something mathematical.

No, nina I don't agree, I am at about the same level in both! I find figures very easy to understand and they don't hide a subtext as words sometimes do!

Do you agree that people seem find either English or maths easy ?

That's the way in our family. DS and I find spelling and grammar easy. He got A* in English but only C maths. I was never any good at maths. I managed to slip through the net and dropped maths in my exam year. Says a lot for my school although I can do the basics. DD and DH are great at maths, but can't spell to save their lives.

I had a teacher at primary school who told mum "She will never amount to anything" bitch!!

When I started High school at eleven, my math teacher was a very old lady (or so it seemed to me) with a very quiet voice, who terrified me, and I came bottom of the class in the end of year exam.
Next year we had a young, vibrant, noisy teacher, who got everybody going, and I came fourth in the exam.

I love maths - it appeals to my logical side. I also love English, so I did a B.Ed with joint honours in Maths and English and taught both. I was told by one psychologist that I am a convergent/divergent thinker but I think we are just too quick to put people in boxes.
I volunteered to teach basic maths to adults under the Adult Literacy Scheme and I can assure everybody that difficulties in maths are rarely connected to intelligence but often to poor teaching in the early years. I think it helps if a teacher really enjoys the subject and is confident about teaching it.

Maths remains a closed book to me. The Maths bloke at school would sneer at me, saying I didn't try - but I did. It just didn't make sense to me! The 'beauty' that some folks see in it is just baloney to me, I'm afraid. Still, I'm very glad there are people who excel at it, otherwise we'd have very little in the way of technology.

Mice dyscalculalia! I suspect it's more common than dyslexia but it doesn't trip off the tongue, does it? I have always had a real problem with remembering numbers. Can't do any but the simplest mental arithmetic. One Maths teacher told me I must be failing deliberately as no-one could be so good at languages and so bad at Maths.

I should have put " " round it because that is how he sees it! He can do sums in his head as easily as I can but panics at just the thought of it. I think the damage is irreparable. Fortunately he doesn't need it as a ballet dancer and whatever he does next I am sure will have nothing to do with numbers! He is incredibly musical and I seem to remember reading somewhere that music helped maths. Anyway anno I sympathise with your GS's situation, a throwaway comment to a young child can stick forever.

I think with maths it's all down to the teacher. I remember enjoying maths at school until our teacher had an accident and spent almost a year out of school. The supply was useless and we all mucked about. When the good teacher returned she had a job getting us back on track for 'O'level

DH says he was useless at maths at grammar school but when he went to Agricultural college it all made sense when applied to a future career.

All my dgcs love maths. It's much more fun these days.

Well, I'm not 'afraid' of it, but I've always had problems with it. I suspect that's partly the appalling teaching at a 1950s grammar school, but also the fact that I could understand the concepts but not manipulate the numbers. I've often wondered if there's an equivalent in numbers to dyslexia as I can only remember one phone number and that's the house phone. Drives everyone potty.

'only' got a B! Moved, that doesn't sound too bad to me! I took the decision to fail my 'prelim' (or term for 'mock') maths so that I wouldn't have to do Higher maths because I enjoyed English, History and languages far more. Dad, a good mathematician, was mortified.

Our DS was told by a teacher that he was no good at maths when he was 7, at 31 he still believes it! He only got B for GCSE and was glad to give it up. She was only in her probationary year and did do several daft things so I hope she either learned or gave up quickly.

By the way, if you want to find Numberjacks, I don't think it's still on CBeebies, but all the episodes seem to be on Youtube. Found it there at the weekend and it kept GS quiet for hours.