Of late, I've been following articles on how students' perception of their own mathematical abilities strongly influences their long-term mathematical performance. One that stands out is the recent Atlantic article The Myth of 'I'm Bad at Math', which should be a must-read for educators, students, and parents. The number of first-year college advisees (or students in my courses) that I've had who start their conversation with me with the statement that, "I'm just not a math person," or, "Math/Computers and I just don't get along," is worrying -- particularly because they're often fine with the math in their courses within a few weeks of adjusting and practicing.
One of my favorite recent humorous takes on this was a video-post For all the Artsy People Secretly Wondering about how Math Works that appeared on Upworthy, featuring (of all people) someone I knew from my time in graduate school up in Ithaca, NY.
