I do like the author's comparison to illiteracy. Language, just like mathematics, tries to solve the problem of communication but while language is more about the expression of emotions, thoughts, and feelings, mathematics is meant to describe precise ideas and abstractions in a quantified way. While language can be ambiguous in how it relays our true intentions, mathematics is anything but. It is the only method humanity has that, through experiment and observation, can help us reach for and perhaps even attain absolute truth.
Just like reading/writing, you don't learn mathematics (real maths, not arithmetic) to be able to scribble symbols on a piece of paper. You learn it to develop a way of thinking that promotes certainty and helps you develop and understand complex abstract ideas that describe how the world works. When you dive deep into math (or programming for that matter), you don't just learn a subject, your brain actually reconfigures itself and fundamentally changes how you act and think. This effect, called neuroplasticity, functions pretty much until you die so it's never too late to learn math.
When someone says that they can't "do" math it says nothing about their intellect. All it says is that they didn't like the mathematical equivalent of "The Cat in the Hat" taught in primary school and are now going to live (many quite proudly) without the mental faculties to express and grok abstract and complicated ideas and systems. Sadly, now more than ever, we need each and every human to have these faculties if we are going to survive and thrive as individuals and as a species.
Just like reading/writing, you don't learn mathematics (real maths, not arithmetic) to be able to scribble symbols on a piece of paper. You learn it to develop a way of thinking that promotes certainty and helps you develop and understand complex abstract ideas that describe how the world works. When you dive deep into math (or programming for that matter), you don't just learn a subject, your brain actually reconfigures itself and fundamentally changes how you act and think. This effect, called neuroplasticity, functions pretty much until you die so it's never too late to learn math.
When someone says that they can't "do" math it says nothing about their intellect. All it says is that they didn't like the mathematical equivalent of "The Cat in the Hat" taught in primary school and are now going to live (many quite proudly) without the mental faculties to express and grok abstract and complicated ideas and systems. Sadly, now more than ever, we need each and every human to have these faculties if we are going to survive and thrive as individuals and as a species.