How to Deal With Your Math Trauma

Could Your Problem With Money Be Your Math Trauma?

06.28.2022 - By: Anastasia Barbuzzi

Vanessa Vakharia (a.k.a The Math Guru) is an author, motivational speaker, part of @goodnightsunrise, founder and owner of a boutique math and science tutoring studio in Toronto (where they serve pi tea lattes!), and the host of the podcast, Math Therapy.

In one of the first episodes of $HMONEY Radio, I interviewed Vanessa about why some women feel uncomfortable and have difficulty learning about finance by analyzing the root cause: a fear of math, or what we like to call, #FOM.

Have you ever said that you hate math? Do you avoid doing certain things just so that you don’t have to do math? Do the words "I’m not a math person" sound familiar?

…If your answer to any of those questions is YES and you’re ready to decode your math trauma, then you’ll want to read the rest of this blog post/interview with The Math Guru herself.

A: I’m dying to know more about the many different hats you wear. Tell me everything.

V: I'm Vanessa. I'm the CEO and founder of the Math Guru, which is a boutique math and science tutoring studio in Toronto that I started after I failed grade 11 math twice.

So I kind of had this amazing experience where I thought I was never going to be able to do math and I completely lost interest. And then I met this teacher that totally changed my life. And one thing led to another and I kind of ended up, I guess, starting a company to make sure that that same thing didn't happen to other kids.

You know, it always hit hard that I could have gone through my whole life believing I was incapable of math and I'm really lucky that I had an intervention.

I also host a podcast called Math Therapy, where I talk to adults about their math traumas and how that has affected their perception of self and like, their sense of self. I am also the author of a book called Math Hacks, which is fun for kids and takes a holistic approach to talking about math anxiety.

A: I want to take a deep dive into this fear of math that there is, especially amongst young women. From your story, it seems to have manifested back in grade 11.

I think there's this interesting stereotype when it comes to math between right brain and left brain, and how that kind of feeds into the stigma about you being a math person or not…

V: Well, the first thing is, you know, stereotypes and like, catch phrases like “right brain-left brain” are really harmful. Like that's not actually based in any science, it's kind of a myth we've been carrying around. It kind of flies off the tip of our tongue. And it's really harmful because people start picturing the left and right sides of their brain and which one is stronger and which one is associated with math— that’s not actually how the brain works at all.

I think it's really important to tell kids from a young age that stuff isn't true. There's no science supporting the fact that your brain is divided left and right. And one is focused on creativity and one is focused on logic. So, you know, these things have become kind of catch phrases and old tales that we say rather casually.

So even saying something like, ‘Oh, I'm just not a math person.’ Or, 'I'm just not a numbers person.’ It kind of flies out of our mouth so casually. But the truth is that like those little casual stereotypes, they're kind of like micro-aggressions. When we talk about gender, they can be really, really harmful if they're repeated enough because people just start believing them, right? It enters common discourse and you start believing that you're either one thing or the other. For example, you can't be a mathematician and an artist.

So I think it's important to educate kids really, really young and to explain to them that, hey, you're gonna hear all this stuff. This is all just made up. You know, like stuff we got from movies, not scientifically based articles.

I like to say to kids, can you think of a single movie where you see a cheerleader who's smart or who likes math? And then get them to come to the conclusion themselves that no, they've never seen that. And to talk about why it really benefits Hollywood to have stereotypes. Why advertising works, how branding works… Like they build this character and really try to get you to associate with it.

So like, it's cool to talk about that stuff because kids don't get to learn that stuff in school. And I think it really motivates them to want to prove those stereotypes wrong.

A: Can you tell me a bit more about the programs and kinds of one-on-one tutoring that you do at the Math Guru?

V: So mostly we focus on one-on-one tutoring so we can really tailor the programming to the student because that's another thing. Often, you know, kids get disenchanted by math because it's not taught in a way that relates to them. So it's really important to be using their language and using the way they learn.

For example, we have exam parties and group sessions and boot camps. We spend eight hours doing math and we have snacks and loot bags. And you know, you invite your friends. There's like 10 kids learning math at a time. We also have boot camps over the summer, which will be running this year, either online or in person where you get to fill in those gaps that you've been missing and build your confidence to get ready for school in September.

A: And do any of those meetings include the “pi tea latte”?

V: Oh my God. Always. It's essential. I mean, we don't force it down your throat, but every session comes with a tea latte with a cute pi stencil on it. And we give loot bags to all of our new students and it smells really good. We light a lot of incense and scented candles, but like soy-based natural ones.

A: I would love to know more about your podcast as well. I really love the name, Math Therapy. Sounds like something I need.

What are some of the segments you do or details about the podcast that people should know about?

V: So I feel like the whole reason I started the podcast is because I was really, really finding that it was crazy how anytime I would go do a radio interview, the host would always be like, ‘Oh my God, I also hated math,’ and got into some huge story about this one time when like they got bullied in class. I feel like I'm like constantly like giving math therapy to be honest.

Even while we're tutoring, we spend so much of our time really giving math therapy, like helping students boost confidence and realize that they can do something. I feel like one thing I always like to say is as much as I care about math, I don't really care about math… as much as I care about math as a means to boosting confidence.

I find math is where a lot of people very early on in life get told they can't do something. So what if we could change that? That's the point of math therapy: to help adults realize that they might think that it's not a big deal, that they kind of shun themselves out of the math community, but that it has played a huge role in their confidence. And if they can kind of go back and understand that they weren't bad at math, but that their feelings of being bad at math were a series of events and occurrences, that it can really change the way they feel about their competency.

So that's kind of the idea of the podcast. We have people on there that are good at math. We have people on there that suck at math. It's all about kind of your identity being shaped by your math experience.

A: If there's one thing you could say to anyone who's still dealing with a math trauma or hesitant to learn and get better at math now, what would you tell them?

V: I would say that like, look, I don't really care if you are totally disinterested in math. Like it does not matter. The most important thing for you is to realize you could do it if you wanted to. And that you're making a choice and the choice to not do math is totally fine. As long as, you know, you could do it if you wanted to. And that's all I care about.

So I would say if you're an adult who's still like, 'I really don't think I could,’ I dare you to pick one concept that you could not do or that you struggled with when you were younger and to learn it, just to prove to yourself that you can do anything you want to, including math. That's all I want.

I think it's important for adults to remind themselves that they're capable of doing whatever they put their mind to.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

Thoughts, questions, or comments for Vanessa? Drop them below!