Beilock and her team also found that the amount of math anxiety female elementary-school teachers have predicts their female—but not male—students’ achievement.5 I imagine this result comes about because female teachers share their feelings about math through statements I have heard like the obvious, “I was not good at math in school,” but also, “Let’s just get through this quickly, so that we can move to reading time.” Girls are affected by this more than boys, because they identify more with their same-gender teachers. Both studies show that parent and teacher messages about math can reduce
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