Higher Ed: Conquering Math 'Phobia'

[TexasTowelie]

"I was told there would be no math!"

It's a line people sometimes say in mock frustration when faced with a situation involving arithmetic. For some people, the thought of doing addition or subtraction causes their hearts to race and their palms to sweat.

Why is that? Why do so many of us fear numbers? In this week's episode of KUT's podcast Higher Ed, KUT's Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger confront the concept of math phobia and explore ways to conquer it.

This week, Ed and Jennifer delve into the reasons why some people are math averse and discuss if it's really math, or arithmetic, that people don't like. Whether you love it or can leave it, listen on to hear a celebration of the "nerdiness" of math and to hear Ed issue a heartfelt apology. What for? You'll only know by checking out this episode.

http://kut.org/post/higher-ed-conquering-math-phobia

Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger and KUT's Jennifer Stayton discuss why we so often hear about "math phobia" but never "history phobia" or "social studies phobia."

http://cpa.ds.npr.org/kut/audio/2015/06/stayton_berger_higher_ed_on_math_phobia_final_mix.mp3 (Soundcloud)

[font color=330099]Full disclosure: I am a mathematics alum from Southwestern University. Dr. Ed Burger is a mathematics professor and produced many YouTube videos on mathematics.[/font]