When asked to recall her experience with mathematics in high school, the main thing Sophie Cooper remembers is the anxiety that came with being told she was wrong. Choosing high-level maths alongside physics, Cooper said she had been one of the few girls in her classes and had wanted to prove to herself she could do it. Cooper and her two daughter still at school – Ophelia, 14, and Hope, 16.
Credit: Holly Thompson “But you got told you were wrong, there was no black and white, and it was disheartening to go back and try again,” she said. “I was always second-guessing myself.” Now a mother with four teenage daughters, Cooper said she never wanted her girls to feel the same, and has been very aware of helping them love the subject.
Two of her girls have since graduated – one chose to do the higher level maths courses while the other chose not to. Cooper said the daughter who had chosen the higher level maths had come out of the experience with “PTSD” from stress, but her other daughter enjoyed for the subject. “I think it comes down to that pressure that is outside parental, and even a teacher’s, control – it really affects young girls,” she said.
“It’s just the way the system functions at the moment.” But how can parents do their best to encourage children to enjoy maths, especially if the subject was never one they loved? It turns out the advice is fairly simple – don’t tell your children how much you hated it. “Your children look up to you.
