I had an interesting conversation eight years ago when I was flying
out of Sacramento. The clerk at the ticket counter noticed the Dr.
beside my name on the ticket and asked we what kind of doctor I was.
When I told her I had a PhD in mathematics, she said "I have always
worked very hard at math."
I pointed out that that wasn't the usual response I got--more often
people would tell me how much they hated math.
She told me that I very rarely hear that from Chinese Americans (she
was Chinese American). She said that they knew how important
mathematics was in getting ahead in so many fields, so they were
taught by their parents to work hard at it. She then proceeded to
show me a trick she was teaching her daughter about how to multiply
two digit numbers by 11. This is an indication of a culture that
values mathematics.
Despite my ability at mathematics, I avoided it for a long time. In
high school I was very uncomfortable with how the other students
reacted to my ability to do math well. I think, also, that I found a
lot of the math we did to be easy enough to be rather boring. It
wasn't until I was in my late twenties, after getting degrees in other
fields, that I came back to mathematics and found how much I really
enjoyed it. In part, this is because I grew up in a culture that
doesn't value mathematics. It wasn't at home--my parents encouraged
me to do math, but it was the peer-group culture.
Mike McConnell
Clarion University
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