Something that’s annoyed me ever since I can remember is math-haters. Those people who say, “You’re doing a math major? I’m so sorry! Why would you do that to yourself?”
Who decided it’s okay to be bad at math anyway?
What I mean is, many laugh and say, “Yeah, I’m HORRIBLE at math,” or “I’m allergic to math,” as if they’re making a funny joke and expect me to laugh along.
You might not understand why this annoys me so much. But imagine if someone were to say… “I’m not good at reading. All the letters are so confusing!” And if they thought you were weird because you liked reading.
Frankly, I think that numeracy is just as important as literacy, and this math-hate has to stop!
Having gotten that rant out of my system, I must say that I’ve been able to meet many incredible, like-minded friends at UTM. Sitting in a comp sci. class, or proofs class, I know I can turn to my neighbour and say an incredibly cheesy math pun and not be laughed at.
It’s a great feeling knowing that people appreciate what you appreciate.
I was playing scattergories with my friends the other day, and all 4 of us came up with different words starting with ‘h’ for the ‘math words’ category. (They were: hypotenuse, hyperbola, hexagon, and height).
Although proofs is finished, this semester I continue with calculus and I’m starting linear algebra. I’m also doing the second part of comp sci. which is promising to be awesome. I’m looking forward to my second semester at UTM, and I hope you all have a great one too.
Here’s a cheesy math joke. Soak it in my friends!
Hanna Y 
I agree Hanna! AND, its at all levels. As a teacher, I have had administrators tell me, “I was never good at math.” It’s so sad. Or heres a good one, you are at a restaurant and someone hands you the check and asks you to split it and/or calculate the tip. How pathetic is that. When I have lunch with an English teacher, I don’t ask him/her to read the menu. It should be every intelligent person’s crusade to make sure that people like those you described are poster children for idiocy. It is not ok to be mathematically ignorant. Shame on those who build their character around it.
That’s exactly what I mean!
It’s especially concerning because teachers have the power to cultivate love of math (and of any subject for that matter) in kids. One of the reasons that the 1-year teacher’s college program in Ontario, is being changed to 2 years is to have teacher-candidates take more math courses. I think this is great, but math confidence/ comfort needs to start much earlier than University.
I think we’re on the right track though… Talking about the issue, and raising awareness about negative math-stigma is one of the best ways to encourage people to like math! 🙂