JakeG wrote:
Why do people think it is perfectly acceptable to say that they hate mathematics/find it boring?
This question has bothered me for a while for a couple of different reasons:
Sometimes people have asked me what I do or what I am interested in and when I say mathematics, the answer is monotonously likely to be either 'Oh math; that's so boring', 'Math? I hate it' or 'Oh I hate numbers'
Why does this seem to be a completely reasonable and socially acceptable thing to say rather than something that people would view as ignorant and intolerant? If someone were to say that they were interested in drawing, painting or music etc. people would say 'ah, how creative' or 'that sounds interesting' even if they didn't happen to have interests in those directions themselves whereas with maths, there is no stigma attached in ridiculing people or negating their genuine interest.
The thing that often annoys me the most is that most of the people who are so happy to say that they hate math or find it boring generally don't actually know what math actually is and haven't made any real effort to find out. They don't seem to realise that the so called 'math' you learn at high school is the literary equivalent to spelling tests or tables of grammar and doesn't really give any insight into what math is about and how interesting, exciting and creative it can be. With only that experience to base a judgement of 'boring' on; it is equivalent to saying a book you haven't read is boring because you remember you found learning the alphabet boring in school. I consider myself a fairly creative person and in fact, that is one of the main reasons I am drawn to math because it allows me to use and develop my imagination. Invention and creativity in math is often so far removed from 'the real world' that it requires real imagination not just to invent and create but also (in many cases) to understand and interpret. To me, someone saying that they find something boring or uninteresting when they really have no knowledge about it just comes across as being completely vacuous and asinine. If I come across something that I find boring or uninteresting, I prefer to see this as a deficiency within myself rather than the subject matter itself and endeavour to find out what interests people in the subject and challenge myself to discover its redeeming features. If all else fails, even if I am unable to interest myself in something, I would still not attack it but rather just put it down to a matter of taste and say that although I accept its value, it is just not my kind of thing. I wouldn't be so presumptuous and self-important to call something boring on the basis that I didn't like it.
One of the worst factors of this disease of math-hate is that I even find that people on my degree course have similar attitudes and ridicule me for my interest and enjoyment of the subject. Unfortunately in some ways, they have naively been led to believe that by getting a math degree they will then be able to get any job they like with ease and henceforth are willing to study a subject that they don't really like or try to maintain an interest in for three/four years.
I am not naive enough to expect everyone else to follow the same interests as me (although it would be nicer if more did) but all I really want is for people to be more tolerant and understanding and not think it ok to negate something which is important to me/other people. People don't understand that when they say something like that, I go right off them straight away and nowadays will tend to push the matter with them and take them to task for what I see as an overly negative and unfair way to speak to someone and then they think that I am the bad guy for doing this.
I am sure that much of this stuff must apply to others with different academic/niche interests as well.
I DO hate math. I'm simply not inclined towards it. It isn't enjoyable.
09 Apr 2007, 10:29 pm
