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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Impeesa" data-source="post: 1878951" data-attributes="member: 498">You'd be surprised, actually. I'd hazard a guess that yes, there's a reason more people have trouble with math than with other subjects - and that reason is, people tell them it's hard and it's okay not to get it. Problem is, then they don't think about it, and it becomes self-fulfilling. In younger kids, it's more obvious. I have a 12 year old brother and sister who are being homeschooled this year. They are both smart kids (okay, maybe my brother moreso than my sister). Both of them absolutely refuse to think for themselves. They will do whole worksheets wrong, or refuse to even comprehend what the question is even asking (this extends to more than just math). If you can get either of them to calm down long enough to think rationally about it, they have no problems at all doing it on their own, but they'd rather just stab in the dark and hope it saves them time and thinking.In high school, I had a friend who had a great deal of trouble with physics 11/12. I could never figure out why, he's definitely a smart person (he's in pre-med now). One day he came back and said the last assignment was really easy, because he'd asked his dad for some help. His dad is also a smart guy (chemical engineer), and he helped my friend break it down a little - the first step in thinking logically through a problem. And I don't have just second-hand anecdotes, either. Over four years of university physics and computer science, I have grades ranging from D to A depending on whether I took a little time at some point to think through the course material. I know first-hand the difference in end results after actively thinking about the material, or spinning my wheels looking for shortcuts and trying to avoid work. It really is a conscious choice - some people just don't realize they have more options. Once they're there, it does take more thinking for some people than for others, I realize that. But once you get to thinking, it's hard not to reach your goal eventually.--Impeesa--</blockquote>

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