MPR – MPR Staff 
It doesn’t matter if you’re frightened of fractions or petrified of parabolas — stop saying you’re bad at math. Repeating that common phrase is spreading math anxiety “like a virus,” according to Petra Bonfert-Taylor, a professor of Dartmouth College who wrote about this issue in an op-ed for the Washington Post. Math anxiety is “an actual thing, and it can be measured” Bonfert-Taylor told MPR News host Tom Weber. It can be exasperated by common classroom practices like timed tests or public grades. It can also be made worse by hearing adults constantly say they hate math.(more)