A recent New York Times article discusses a study that points to cultural attitudes about math as the reason why students in the U.S., especially girls, are not developing stronger skills in this area. “The study suggests that while many girls have exceptional talent in math — the talent to become top math researchers, scientists and engineers — they are rarely identified in the United States. A major reason, according to the study, is that American culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls — and boys, for that matter — from excelling in the field.”  Often, math is seen as hard and scary, a subject only for the “nerds”, and the implication is that participating in something like a math competition is just not cool. Not so in many other countries, where strong math skills are valued, and math competitions are highly visible to the public. The article points out that while sports achievements are given great media coverage in the U.S., little attention is paid to academic accomplishments.

Why do you think this is? Why is the U.S. so different from these other countries? What can we do to change how American culture views math?

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