Over one hundred happy students come to the Better Tuition Centre every week and they all start off with a FREE assessment.  Over the years, particular issues with learning come up time and again.

If I had a penny for every parent who tells me they ‘can’t do maths’ I’d be blogging this piece from a sea front penthouse.  I don’t keep an exact statistical record of this, but parents who feel they struggle with maths are more often female. 

Why is this?  It certainly is the case that women are more comfortable at ‘owning up’ when they find something difficult or puzzling.  Men are more likely to battle on regardless.  Exam results nevertheless show a gender gap: it is girls who outperform boys in GCSE maths, yet far more boys go on to study mathematics at university.

If I then had a further penny for every parent who tells me their child ‘won’t read’ or ‘doesn’t read’ I’d be hurrying to finish this blog post so that I could leaf through my investment portfolio on a yacht!  Nobody will be surprised to learn that it is overwhelmingly boys who don’t enjoy reading.

I certainly can’t answer why some boys don’t like to read in one blog post (people write doctoral theses on the matter and the problem hasn’t yet been solved) but it is clear that the issue lies with the lack of interactivity offered by traditional books.  Some boys see reading as passive and therefore can’t be bothered to sit down and read them. 

It is clear that both boys and girls need positive role models.  Parents who struggle with maths should avoid letting their children know this as they really do pick up on anxieties.  As for reading, the best way to engender a love of reading in boys or girls is to read to them and around them. 

Be aware of stereotyping and don’t let your daughter say, ‘I can’t do maths’ or your son say, ‘I don’t like reading.’

Further reading can be found here and here.

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