वयस्कों में एक प्रवृत्ति होती है कि वे जिस गणित को आसानी से समझ लेते हैं (जैसे पैटर्न पहचानना, सुपरमार्केट में अलग-अलग ऑफर्स में से चुनाव करना, और सरकार द्वारा प्रकाशित आंकड़ों पर सवाल उठाना) उसे वे "सामान्य ज्ञान" (कॉमन सेंस) कह देते हैं और बाकी हर उस चीज़ को जिसे वे नहीं समझ पाते, "गणित" का लेबल लगा देते हैं - ताकि गणित में कमजोर होना उनकी अपनी ही एक पूरी होने वाली भविष्यवाणी (सेल्फ-फॉरफिलिंग प्रोफसी) बन जाए।
There's a tendency for adults to label the math that they can do (such as identifying patterns, choosing between competing offers in a supermarket, and challenging statistics published by the government) as "common sense" and labeling everything they can't do as "math" - so that being bad at math becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
There's a tendency for adults to label the math that they can do (such as identifying patterns, choosing between competing offers in a supermarket, and challenging statistics published by the government) as "common sense" and labeling everything they can't do as "math" - so that being bad at math becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.