Sheila tobias biography
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The myth of the ‘math person’
In the s, Sheila Tobias noticed something peculiar going on in mathematics. In one of her early studies, the graduate of Radcliffe College, self-described “scholar activist,” and author of 14 books, including the bestseller “Overcoming Math Anxiety,” gave elementary school students a sheet of paper, divided in half.
On one side, they worked on a math problem; on the other, they wrote down how the problem made them feel.
“I’m finished,” one wrote.
Sheila tobias biography
“Nobody else is. I must be wrong.”
Another wrote: “I’m not finished. Everybody else is. I must be wrong.”
Many remembered their parents saying something like, “Nobody in our family is good at math.” Others recalled the shame of standing at a blackboard, failing to solve an equation as their classmates heckled and laughed.
“Math anxiety is a serious handicap,” Tobias wrote in a article in Ms.
magazine describing her findings. “It is handed down from mother to daughter with father’s amused indulgence.