[MATHEDCC] Re: AA without Math Requirement

DustyGrigg@AOL.COM
Sat, 3 Oct 1998 02:59:35 EDT

Hi Karen!

I just need to comment on your comment regarding a previous comment:
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Previous Comment: "The reasons the students have given for the
committees that I have been on have basically been "math anxiety."
---------------------------------------------------------

Your Comment: "Then they should be told to GET OVER IT if they want to
graduate from college.
---------------------------------------------------------


I feel that your comment that people experiencing math anxiety should be told
to "GET OVER IT if they want to graduate from college" ... Is quite harsh and
unfeeling!

I am a person who previously experienced an extremely high degree of math
anxiety! Had I been told "GET OVER IT if you want to graduate from college"
... I would not have gotten over it nor would I have graduated from a two-year
educational institution, let alone graduating from a four year educational
institution and also it's teaching credential program! Had I been told "GET
OVER IT if you want to graduate from college" ... I don't know where I'd be or
what I would be doing today!

Karen - I did get over my math anxiety ... with the help of a very
knowledgeable and patient math teacher whom I had after I barely passed
Intermediate Algebra, at a community college. This math teacher dissolved my
math anxiety in less than one semester!

Perhaps you may think my anxiety wasn't so great - if it only took less than
one semester for a teacher to dissolve it! Yet that's not true by any means.
My math anxiety began 27 years earlier and was caused by the teacher I had for
geometry in 10th grade! (That's another story!)

The teacher that dissolved my 27 year old math anxiety in less than a semester
... also inspired me to continue on with math and to eventually teach it
myself!

Karen - I can appreciate your concerns about colleges which do issue math
requirement waivers. Yet people who experience math anxiety DO NOT NEED TO BE
TOLD:

"GET OVER IT if you want to graduate from college"

Rather - they need at least one knowledge and patient teacher to help them
dissolve and over-come their anxiety!

Can you be such a teacher to your students who experience math anxiety???????

Dusty


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