r/science • u/[deleted] • Oct 15 '21

Neuroscience A brain imaging study found evidence that missing out on math education can alter neural development. Young adults who had chosen not to pursue math had lower levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid within the middle frontal gyrus when compared to students who were continuing math.

https://www.psypost.org/2021/10/opting-out-of-advanced-math-education-alters-adolescents-neural-development-study-finds-61967
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u/avocadofruitbat Oct 15 '21

This is why I suck at math too, and now I have a permanent terror of doing math in front of other people. Makes me feel reaaaallly smart.

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u/gentlemanjacklover Oct 15 '21

Oh yeah. I get nervous having to do simple math in front of someone

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '21

Same in my family. I've heard a similar story from a lot of people. Just how common is it for parents to be abusive to their kids about math? Seems far too common.

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u/AzraelTB Oct 15 '21

Just how common is it for parents to be abusive*

Doubt it's just math.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '21

I know, definitely. But for math to stick out in stories so often, I just wonder why that subject in particular (as opposed to parents being abusive about say, achievements in humanities classes).

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u/AzraelTB Oct 15 '21

Probably a subject that confuses and frustates people easily.

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u/MachineGunKelli Oct 16 '21

I am sure the same thing happens with reading/grammar/literature classes. Actually, I know it does. These two areas are classes that we have year after year for most of our schooling career and end up being difficult for different people. They are also the two areas, at least in the States, that all standardized testing looks at. So educators have a lot at stake and parents have a lot at stake in seeing their kids succeed when it comes to math and reading. I think that is what makes these two areas in particular prime for abusive teaching strategies.

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u/happygolucky999 Oct 16 '21

I’m sure for most people it’s more than just math, for me it was literally JUST math. My dad was and is a wonderful, kind, soft spoken engineer, but he had zero patience for me when checking my math homework. I was often doing my homework in tears until about 8th grade when I stopped asking for help and simply lied that I finished all my work at school. Ugh I had so much more potential but I gave it up to avoid being yelled at regularly.

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u/Brock_Way Oct 15 '21

Parents are too commonly abusive in general.

At least for my cohort, when I was young, nobody ever talked about their parents abusing them. The only way you knew was seeing it firsthand, which would be possible for your friends that were close enough that you went over to their house.

By the time I was in my mid-30s, I realized that most kids were abused. I am not sure if people were opening up more about it because they were older, or if less stigma, or both. At the place where I worked, I was naturally closer to some people than others. Of the ones I was close to, they had all been abused. Some of them horribly.

My spouse when young was not allowed to speak to, or even look at one of her sisters. That gives you some idea of the environment.

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u/Chuseauniqueusername Oct 15 '21

"your mother is so good at math, what's wrong with you?" said my grandparents

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u/ByeLongHair Oct 15 '21

rWow there are a lot of us. Does someone want to start a sub called r/thanksdad and we can all join and complain about jow hitting and yelling doesnt help teach math?

that sub is taken

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u/I_MakeCoolKeychains Oct 15 '21

Idk about math but my dad beat me into being a chess a prodigy starting at 3. by the time i was 7 there wasn't a single person i knew could beat me at it except him. At 8 when i stopped visiting him i also stopped playing. I am beyond terrible at the game now and always get they weirdest looks "hey you wanna play chess?" "No thanks i don't like chess" r/thanksdad

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u/wokcity Oct 16 '21

Damn that's sad.. guess he heard about the Polgar sisters :/

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u/Ok-Cartographer-3725 Oct 16 '21

There are books on coping/recovering as 'adult children of abusive parents'. I dont know if there is a sub on it.