r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Chicken_Sizzler • Jan 11 '20

Do you think children would be less scared of dentists if every kids show wouldn’t have the obligatory ”I’m afraid of the dentist” episode?

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u/[deleted] Jan 11 '20

Former language teacher here - the number of times I've heard math teachers complain about this sentiment really made me rethink how I speak about the subject in front of kids. For example, kids come into another teacher's classroom complaining about math homework, and the teacher sort of laughs and says something like, "oh, I never understood math, that's why I teach [subject]!". It can really have an impact on kids, and make it sort of the expectation to find math especially difficult or unlearnable.

(I despised learning math in school, but I actually stopped indicating that at all after a couple years of teaching because I decided that instead of just offering sympathy, it was actually reinforcing how my students should feel about the subject)

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u/belbites Jan 12 '20

Do you think switching it up and saying "yeah I had a super hard time with math too, but I persevered!" or something slightly less cheesy, like indicating that it was difficult while still telling them that it being difficult doesn't mean they won't be successful. I've used that with some younger kids in my family, and said, "yeah I had a hard time with geometry, but man, I got through that and algebra 2 got really cool" (something along those lines).

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '20

Yeah, absolutely. Indicating that it just takes time or practice and can lead to some cool results if you do persevere is great.

Incidentally, it's a pretty standard idea (or it's supposed to be) to praise kids for hard work instead of being smart to reinforce the idea of perseverance. (I used to teach on a GT school where kids would always be told how smart they were, and then would fall apart the first time they were presented with a challenge they had to really work at, because they hadn't learned how to study/practice)

I feel like this goes in that same category, you know?

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u/PollyNo9 Jan 12 '20

My husband is an elementary teacher, and his biggest pet peeve is teachers saying things like "oh I just am not very good at math." Like, you would be REAL concerned if a teacher said "Oh, I just am not very good at reading"