By the time I was twelve, I believed that no matter how hard I tried in math I would fail. My grade 6 teacher was the catalyst to this negative, fixed mindset. She had tried to help me three times to understand fractions and in failing to do so she asked, “Why are you so stupid?” It was from that moment, my negative self-concept regarding math started to form. I can’t completely blame my grade 6 teacher; math was hard for me. I have dyscalculia. I failed grade 8, grade 9 and grade 10 math and had to take summer school for those three years. But, the negative self-concept played a massive role in this failure.
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