My Perspective - The sum of all fears

By Jim Palmer

It started with a simple text from my youngest son, Easton, a sophomore in high school.

“Can you answer some questions for me to get extra credit in math?”

My first thought was... why would my son be asking me to answer questions for him for extra credit? He has always done well in math... and has always been a rule follower.

After questioning his motives (in a joking way) he let me know that the assignment was for him to ask an adult to answer some math questions. If I answer the questions, he gets the extra credit.

I said I could help him out.

A second later my mind started to spin a little.

How hard would these math questions be? Is this a demonstration that shows the class how bad their parents are at math? Would I be the worst of the worst? Would the class get a good chuckle over my (lack of) math skills?

About a minute later, another text arrived.

“It’s about how you use math in your job.”

He followed up by emailing me the questions and a text that simply said, “Lock in.”

Once I scanned the questions, this seemed much less scary, but for those 60 seconds before I knew the assignment, I had a quick flashback that took me all the way through my mathematical life journey.

I was a decent math student in elementary and junior high, then started losing confidence as classes started to get a little more complicated. It was about this time that I started to realize my “right brain”  was stronger than my “left brain.” I was far more interested in the creative, artistic and imaginative side of life (and studies) than the analytical and factual end of it. Playing with words seemed much more enjoyable than crunching numbers. I would have rather spent 10 hours writing papers for our English teacher, Mr. Jaeger, than one hour of trying to figure out complex formulas for my math teacher, Mr. Baysinger. While I don’t think I ever had anything lower than a B in a math class in high school, the confidence just wasn’t there. In fact, by the time I went to college, I had a emerging fear of math. In college, I reluctantly took a required algebra class. It went just fine... but I didn’t take another math class the rest of my collegiate years. I didn’t want to press my luck.

That got me to think. How many people share this same fear? So I searched online. Turns out, studies have revealed that 64 to 93 percent of adults in the United States currently have some level of math anxiety or fear of mathematics. I am not alone. In fact, those numbers are nearly the same as other big, more  talked about fears -- the fear of spiders and the fear of public speaking.

My wife is far better at math than I am. When our three boys were going through elementary, they would ask both of us for help on math assignments. By about third or fourth grade, the math questions started shifting completely to mom. They picked up that dad wasn’t as good than math a little quicker than I had hoped. I thought I for sure I could make it until the junior high years.

When I “locked in” and filled out Easton’s extra credit assignment, I learned a few things about myself. The dozen questions I needed to answer mostly focused on how I use math as part of my work, how math skills factor in my hiring for certain positions, and how math has changed in my lifetime (don’t get me started on “new math”). Turns out, I use math pretty much every day in some way. And while most of the math is fairly basic in my eyes, I feel like I’m at an adequate level to do my job effectively. The final question was, “Do you like math?” I think like is maybe a little too strong of a word here. Tolerate perhaps?

So why the fear of math? My level of math anxiety just doesn’t add up (pun intended). 

Another internet search says most people have a fear of math because of such things as negative classroom experiences, performance pressure on timed drills, low self confidence, and panic that can set in when a math assignment doesn’t quite click. All these things can spoil your confidence. Studies also show that math anxiety in school can result in changes in career plans and goals, and avoidance in math tasks for the rest of their lives.

Funny how much that little text from my son triggered my math anxiety. 

What level is your math anxiety? Do you avoid even basic math situations? Did math influence your career path? Did you try to avoid this column altogether because it mentioned math? If you are a full-fledged left-brainer who finds all levels of math easy, good for you. Feel free to puff your chest and pat yourself on the back. For the rest of us... stay calm, take a deep breath, take it one number at a time... and don’t forget to show your work.