First of all, sorry i havent posted anything in a while, things have been hectic.
Anyway, the other day, someone asked me a question that really got me thinking. It was a question that sounds pretty black and white, but maybe it isn't. He asked me, "Are you more of a math/science person or an english/history person?" I wasn't really sure what to say, clearly I'm not a math person, but I never really considered myself an english person either. Aside from math, I've gotten mostly average grades in everything, but I wasn't spectacular at one particular subject. I'm ok in english, but i've never really liked it. If you ask me I dont think I'm a math or an english person, I'm just me. I'm not struggling with my identity or anything, I'm ok with this, in fact its good to be me. I was just wondering, if I'm not math person and i'm not an english person than what kind of person am I?
Equations are the devil's sentences. -Stephen Colbert
Location: United States Posts: 1860 Joined: 2008-11-14
It does seem like most people are stronger in either the liberal arts (English, history, social sciences, etc.) or the hard sciences (math, physics, chemistry, etc.) It's interesting that you don't find yourself being particularly strong in either of those areas. Maybe you're more musically or artistically inclined, or more skilled in working with your hands, rather than having a particular academic strength?
I personally am definitely an English person. In 1st grade I was reading at a middle school level, and by 3rd grade I was reading college material. I recently had my IQ tested as part of my second round of learning disability tests, and in the "Reading Comprehension" subsection of the test I scored in the 99.9th percentile... you could say reading is a strength of mine! I have also been recognized multiple times for my writing, both academic and creative.
I think my brain is just geared towards words - understanding them, putting them together, utilizing them to convey ideas and emotions. Personally, I would much rather have my skill set than be good at math. I would never trade one for the other - sure, I suck at math, that's sort of the "thorn in my side" for being abnormally gifted in English. You couldn't pay me all the money in the world to trade it and be the other way around - a math genius with average reading skills. That just doesn't sound like very much fun to me. "The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6103 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/27/11
Hi dandy22,
Nice to see you again. Before I'd heard of dyscalculia, I used to try to make sense of my lack of math ability by using that 'math person or word person' way of explaining to myself why I couldn't do math. They say that the myth of the earth resting on the back of an elephant, held as truth by ancient cultures, came about because when there's something that people don't understand, they'll 'make something up' to fill in the gaps. I think now that, yes, most people who don't like math tend to be more verbally/reading inclined,... but might have, as Kat mentioned, other interests just as consuming as 'verbal/reading'. However, when a person has dyscalculia, in my opinion, this is a different 'animal' altogether from the possibly valid 'math person versus word person' explanation. I think that, were it not for having this disability, some of us who can barely do math at all, might have been 'math people'. Math was taken from us as a result of dyscalculia. We do the best we can with what we have left, usually coming up with some really great improvisations. Thanks for raising this point. I think that this is the most it's been discussed here in the three years that I've been on this forum. Don't stay away so long next time! - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on September 29 2011 03:55 AM
I've always been the stereotypical "liberal arts" person ... read early and with comprehension, always many grades above my actual school grade; always have done well with history, social studies - anything like that. Those 'A' and 'B' grades effectively pulled up my overall average, reducing the appearance of any math issue and making it easier for authorities to overlook the signs. I loved spelling class as a young child. I was one of those kids who drew tons of dog and horse pictures and wrote short stories on little index cards at 8, 9, 10 yrs.... read 'em to my mom. Before that I was copying stories from books, just doing "the motion" you could say. I had a kid's book on parakeet care which I got with my first little boy parakeet when I was about 7 and I played "school" and "author" with it, copying the words off the pages. I took AP English and Bio in high school and woulda loved AP History but it wasn't available at my high school at the time I was there.
Am not musically inclined at all but went to creative arts high school to save myself and auditioned with a visual arts "portfolio" to get in - all those horse and dog pictures and probably other things I'd put together.
My mother and my aunt <mom's sister> are very similar to me in relation to above skills/background; my mom has some facial drawings she did of me as a very young child, actually.
so I guess for me, I fit that "pattern" and even if I didn't have math LD, I don't think the chances are good that I'd be a "math-y" person. But that's just me. I think part of the beauty in the world is all the various strengths and aspects of different people
I think y'all could be right, I don't understand music but I love art, always have. I don't really fit in with the rest of my family. My brother is going to school to become a physicist and my dad majored in science as well, and my mom is a nurse. There are also a lot of people in my family who work in the medical field.
And then there's me, I'm a little different. My family can't really relate to me, I don't think we've ever had anyone artsy in the family. My family doesn't give me a hard time or anything, they still love me and tell me it's ok to be different.
I find it wierd that everyone i talk to is bent one way or the other; math or english. Their just isn't anyone else quite like me.
Equations are the devil's sentences. -Stephen Colbert
hi dandy, am glad you're family seems accepting of you, based on what you posted. I think they're right - it's ok to be different.
Although I fit the "pattern" often found specifically in this forum, as I described - overall in terms of general population I'm also "different" for a variety of reasons and have never quite "fit in".
That's ok too.
Location: United States Posts: 1860 Joined: 2008-11-14
I think Jus actually makes a really fair point. Some of us, without this disability, very well could have been "math people" so to speak. One of the ways in which my diagnosis was originally made was to compare my "fluid reasoning" skills - your ability to use logic to reason through complex ideas and situations - with my math achievement scores. Fluid reasoning is USUALLY very predictive of math ability, because fluid reasoning is the foundation of understanding mathematical equations. But for me, it was not - my fluid reasoning was high, but my math achievement was much, much lower than predicted.
Being good at math is a lot more than just understanding how to do algebra, divide fractions, etc. It means having a conceptual knowledge of WHY you do the things you do, what the equations mean, how the numbers logically work. That is why fluid reasoning is an important foundation of mathematical ability - without that fluid reasoning ability, you wouldn't be able to understand why it is that y=mx+b, for example. This is also why people who are good at math tend to be good at science, too - science also relies heavily on fluid reasoning, in order to understand scientific laws and concepts.
Understanding logical math/science concepts has never been a problem for me... until you involve numbers. I always aced my non-math science classes in high school like Biology, Earth Science, and Marine Science, all at the Honors level. I floundered in Honors Chemistry, I think I scraped by with a C, and I made a solid B in Honors Physics.
My Physics teacher, who used to tutor me in the math portion of my Physics class after school, used to exclaim in a confused, frustrated tone, "You understand all these very difficult science concepts before anyone else, but you're struggling with middle-school level math equations. I just don't understand why!" Neither did I.
Talk about frustrating. I could write you an essay in which I explained, in depth, the rationale behind Newton's three laws, but I could not manage to calculate force using the equation f=ma without messing something up along the way. After my dyscalculia diagnosis, I wrote that teacher an email to let her know that there was finally an answer as to why I could understand complex Physics, but not middle-school math.
For me, my main dyscalculia problem is deeply rooted in a deficiency in number symbol recognition (seeing number symbols and processing them), number order, and basic calculations. I have a hard time looking at a number printed on a page or screen and figuring out what it is - I mistake 6 and 9 frequently, as well as 2 and 5, 3 and 8, 6 and 8, etc. Basically any number that sort-of resembles the shape of another number. And even once I have that figured out, sometimes I rearrange the order of the numbers, so that 82 becomes 28, etc. And even if I manage to get all of that written down correctly, I might end up adding or subtracting incorrectly.
Oh, but I can explain to you why y=mx+b. Go figure.
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer
Location: Munising, MI, USA Posts: 791 Joined: 2010-10-09
I am very good with music and language arts. Sometimes, I think I might be a math-type person if it were not for dyscalculia, as well. My brother is great at math. I'm not. I have an elementary level understanding of math. I don't know what it would be like to be good at math, and don't usually bother trying to think about it, because I can't change the way my brain is wired. Sure, it would have a lot of advantages not to be learning disabled. I'm sure I wouldn't face a lot of the problems I do. I'm great at biology, I do well with logic and debating, but I can't do math to save my life. Maybe I could have been a 4.0 student if it weren't for this LD, but wondering won't change anything, so I usually chose to focus on what I can change, and live with the reality that has been dealt me.
I'm NOT lost, I'm just taking the scenic rout!
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6103 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/28/11
It feels good to have had my idea understood. There's no way to 'prove' it one way or the other, of course, but I'll illustrate it this way: When an athelete looses the use of his legs, he might still participate in sports from a wheelchair. We would never assume that he's just not a 'leg person'. We have a disability in math due to a flaw in our brains, not due to an inclination of our personal preferences. (This is only my opinion, folks, if you are new to this forum.) - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on September 29 2011 04:19 AM
