Math Anxiety
She was troubled that a college professor had not encouraged her to take more science courses due to her limited science background. She was determined to persuade others to pursue science and math courses early in their education.
FAMILY BACKGROUND AND CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER
Editor’s note – When a story is based on a personal interview with the (anonymous) story teller, I am able to include brief reference to the career(s) of the storyteller’s parents, mostly interesting for whether the storyteller was directly influenced by her or his parents (“You must be a doctor, lawyer, engineer or follow me into my plumbing business!”) or indirectly influenced by an aversion to either of the parent’s careers: for example, not wanting to spend hours commuting or excessive traveling away from home or following a boring or unsafe career path.
Also, mostly for fun, it’s interesting to contrast the early career dreams of a storyteller during their elementary or high school years, with her or his eventual adult career. As other career stories within this collection illustrate, childhood dreams of being a professional athlete or airline pilot or minister or archeologist or FBI agent, have a way of changing when an interesting and more likely achievable career path seems available. This project demonstrates that point.
The following story is based on a 9-11-22 obituary within the NY Times. Unfortunately, unlike most NYT obituaries, there was no mention of parental careers or childhood career dreams. Ordinarily, I would therefore not use an obituary to draft a career story without both of those background elements but ST’s story is too important to omit just because those background elements are unavailable.
The most important issue for these career stories – also missing from ST’ obituary – is answering the question: “Why did that person choose – and possibly later change – that career?” As will be revealed, we don’t know – because the obituary didn’t discuss – why our storyteller chose her first two careers, but we will report on why she chose her final career and its importance to all genders proceeding through the steps of formal education.
EDUCATION
ST earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and literature at a (then) all-women’s college, later achieving a Master’s degree in history from a different university.
When ST finished her freshman year in college, her professor in a natural sciences course congratulated her on her performance in his science class. But for many years, ST was troubled that the professor had not encouraged her to take more science classes. When she finally asked him why, he said that her limited science background had already made her ineligible for a science career.
Looking back years later, ST said: “I think everything I have done since then, originated in the thrill of that course and in the door closing through no fault of my own. I had to become a feminist and meet women like myself who were thwarted in their careers.”
EARLY CAREER PATHS – JOURNALISM AND EDUCATION
After receiving her multiple degrees in formal education, ST, who had proven to one college professor her proficiency in science, nonetheless began her adult career path as a journalist overseas. When she returned to the U.S., ST worked in print and television journalism. Later, a university (she had never attended as a student) appointed her Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs. That same year, ST helped to organize a conference on women that was attended by Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique.” ST also taught a women’s studies course, believed to be one of the first in the country.
DISCRIMINATION TYPES DEFINED
Editor’s note – ‘Discrimination’ in an innocent and proper sense is merely the recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another. For example, a coffee drinker ‘discriminates’ by personal taste and preference between plain coffee and Starbucks coffee. Such discrimination is neither immortal nor illegal. However, ‘discrimination’ is also associated with the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability. Using this latter definition, this story proceeds.
WRITING CAREER INSPIRED BY DISCRIMINATION IN EDUCATION
After becoming an associate Provost (a senior administrator in certain colleges and universities), at a university which had just started to admit women students, ST began studying the high school transcripts of entering female students, noticing a disturbing pattern: the young ladies were avoiding math or any other major that required a knowledge of math, like physics, chemistry, or economics. Her conclusion: “Smart, ambitious college girls were just sliding off the quantitative.”
MATH AND SCIENCE ANXIETY – BASIS ANALYZED
After reviewing the transcripts, ST opened a clinic to deal with math anxiety at the university, including writing math symbols on a blackboard and asking students, “Do these look hostile to you?”
Although math anxiety affected men as well, ST found, she framed it as a feminist issue at a time when the women’s movement was just beginning to make itself generally known. “I was talking about math as an example of the feminist term ‘learned helplessness’ and how men were keeping us out of power because the learned helplessness disabled us from competing at full tilt.”
While focusing her career on education upon informing women about differences in education tracks offered to males and females, ST decided to try to attack the problem by exploring what she called ‘math anxiety” – the reasons that made smart students, mostly females, avoid mathematics as it became increasingly difficult. She wrote about the concept in a magazine (“Ms.”) marketed to women readers. A leader of the women’s movement at the time (Gloria Steinem), called the article “one of the most important pieces we have ever published. She (ST) described for the first time that there is no more a math mind than there is a history mind. It is just that people learn in different ways.”
In the article, ST wrote: “Math anxiety is a serious handicap. It is handed down from mother to daughter with father’s amused indulgence. (“Your mother could never balance a checkbook” he says fondly.) Then, when a colleague recognizes it in an employee, she can be barred from any endeavor or new assignment by the threat that the new job will involve some work with data or tables or functions.”
ST then expanded her article into a book: “Overcoming Math Anxiety.” In her research on math anxiety, ST discovered that many college students had a similar fear of science, which led to her writing another book: “They’re Not Dumb, They’re Different: Stalking the Second Tier.” That book explored why students abandon science for other subjects.
Another book co-written by ST was “Breaking the Science Barrier: How to Explore and Understand the Sciences.”
As part of her research on math and science anxieties, ST paid (men and women) liberal arts graduate students to take first-year chemistry and physics courses at different universities and to take notes on their experiences. “What (the students) found was that most courses remain unapologetically competitive, selective and intimidating and there was little attempt to create a sense of community among average students of science.” ST noted that some students, both men and women, were turned off by science because, they said, too much time was spent studying formulas without knowing why they were learning them. Others said science courses failed to connect what they were learning with the larger world.
Later in her writing advocacy career, ST was a co-author of a book that sought to demystify the military: “What Kinds of Guns Are They Buying for Your Butter? A Guide to Defense, Weaponry and Military Spending.”
CAREER SATISFACTION
ST had to know that her books motivated and inspired not only the students she encountered at the universities where she taught or was an administrator, but literally to millions of women then living, who would pass their determination to explore math and science, onto following generations.
ST’s career dedication to both education and writing, earned praise from fellow professionals, one of whom called ST “a leading thinker in our movement.” Said another, “She was always looking for new ways to think. She was a rebel!”
