Now a days there
are a lot more students who are becoming overwhelmed with mathophobia.
Mathophobia is when a student does not do their math homework, tends to skip
their math classes, freezes if they are asked a question during class, putting
off doing any work for the class, or they will say that they cannot do math. Some
students especially at a younger grade level will try to avoid doing math by
saying that they need to go to the nurse because they need ice for something
that is bothering them. They may also start to play with strings that they have
on their shirts that way they no longer are paying attention to what is going
on. Older students will have a different way of acting when it comes to
mathophoblia. What does not help older students who have mathophobia is having
a cell phone on them all the time. If they even have a simple problem they need
to use the calculator on their phones.
At my job most
of the people that I work with cannot count out their register without using
their calculator to add up the totals of all the money. It is upsetting that a
lot of students just cannot use their brain to do simple math anymore and that
they have to use their cellphones to do it because it is that much easier for
them than to try and figure it out without it. Although there may be times that
a student does not have a problem with learning how to do math but whether or
not it is boring. Many students will not focus in their class because it is not
interesting to them. Many students prefer to do things that are hands on over
just being lectured by their teacher. So this can have a part in if students
have mathophobia or it is just students no longer having an interest in
learning about math.
I had dealt with
mathophobia when I was younger until I was in seventh grade. At that time I was
terrified with anything that had to do with math and almost never wanted to do
anything that was related to math it had all scared me. What also did not help
me was that I had a teacher in third grade that would yell at us if we did not
do the math right. He had made me practice over and over multiplication until I
had gotten it right, but the more I did it the worse I got because I got so afraid
and never wanted to look at it again. Then part of the way through third grade I
had moved and started at a new school but the fear of math had stayed with me. I
did try harder but it never got better for me. Then in seventh grade I had a
teacher who had made math no longer scary to me. She had shown me that math is
not that bad.
