"Oh wow! I don't have a math brain."
"You are so lucky, I just don't have the math gene."
"I just am not mathematical."
Somehow it is okay to say these things in our society. No one would ever say, " I just never learned to read." or "I don't have the reading gene." They may say they don't like to read, but that is entirely different that saying they are unable to learn to read.
I believe that any person can learn and become mathematical. I don't believe this is easy. It requires trial and error, persistence, consistency, mentoring, and being willing to learn from mistakes.
I am not musical. I can't really stay in tune when I sing, I don't play any instruments. All three of my children excel in music. They understand it in a way I can't comprehend. Moreover, sometimes I can't even follow their conversation due to the high level musical vocabulary. I joke with people that I don't know where their musical mind came from; they certainly didn't get their music genes from me. I feel like they are so lucky to be able to enjoy this music brain they seem to have.
I just realized that I am a complete hypocrite!
Somehow it is not okay when people say such things about math, but music, that is another story. So it is here I apologize to the many people I have told that I have no musical talent, and I don't know where my children got the music "gene" from. I also apologize to my children, who have worked hard to become musical through trial and error, mentoring, persistence, and consistency. I don't have a musical brain......yet.
I am beginning my journey today with learning to play the saxophone. It is one of the "extra" instruments we have around our house. My sons assure me that this is the easiest instrument to learn to play because the keys are in order. I don't quite understand what that exactly means, but "easiest" sounds less intimidating. I imagine that is why the math problems in a book go from easy to more difficult. First on the agenda....putting the saxophone together!