The very mention of maths can be an immediate cause of anxiety or even terror for many practitioners in the early years and primary schools. Comments such as ‘My brain is not wired up for maths’, ‘I have never liked maths’ and ‘We don’t really need to know about maths now we have calculators on our phones’ trip off the tongue.
Such categoric statements, however, are not so frequently made about English or the arts. So, what is going on here?
As with many anxieties, this one is often rooted in past encounters. Many practitioners recall negative and demoralising memories of being ‘taught’ maths. Worksheets to be done (or not) in silence, irrelevant calculations to be solved, just not ‘getting it’ and a dread of not finding the ‘right answers’ are among the problems remembered.
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