Noah Smith's and my Quartz column "There's One Key Difference Between Kids Who Excel at Math and Those Who Don't" was also published in the Atlantic online as "The Myth of 'I'm Bad at Math.'" This is by more than an order of magnitude the most popular thing I have ever written. That might even be true for Noah. I followed up with the column "How to Turn Every Child into a 'Math Person'." Our message of "You, too, can learn math" should be clear enough, but such is the racism in our society, that when it comes to disadvantaged minorities, the message "You, too, can learn math" needs to be reiterated. Until we see the potential in everyone, regardless of race or household income, prejudice continues. 

The article linked above, "How Does Race Affect a Student's Math Education" talks about racial obstacles to everyone getting the message that the ability to do math is as nearly universal as the ability to read. Letting someone believe they can't learn to do math is like letting someone believe they can't learn to read. Either is cruel in the extreme. 

Sometimes people don't realize that math comes slowly to almost everyone. Those who spend a lot of time thinking about math get good at it. On this theme, in addition to "How to Turn Every Child into a 'Math Person'," see 

• Cathy O'Neil on Slow-Cooked Math

• Mary O'Keeffe on Slow-Cooked Math

• Fields Medal Winner Maryam Mirzakhani's Slow-Cooked Math.

Thanks to Richard Watson for pointing me to this article. 

Miles: I wrote a follow-up column "How to Turn Every Child into a "Math Person" that gives links to some of the reactions to "There's One Key Difference Between Kids Who Excel at Math and Those Who Don't" and many resources for math learning. Here are some links to posts on math learning that didn't make it into that column:

• Math Camp in a Barn

• Fields Medal Winner Maryam Mirzakhani's Slow-Cooked Math

• Barbara Oakley: How We Should Be Teaching Math

• Jessica Lahey: Teaching Math to People Who Think They Hate It

• My Advice to Qatar: Make Math Education a Research Grand Challenge

• Laura Overdeck: Math for Pleasure

• Jethra Spector: Using Miles and Noah's Math Column in the Classroom

• Warren Henning: A Software Engineer’s Adventures  In Learning Mathematics (link)

• Laura Overdeck: Street Math

• 21 GIFs That Explain Mathematical Concepts | IFLScience (link)

• Muhammed Chaudhry: College Success Starts in Math Class (link)

• Evidence that Bedtime Math Boosts Kids’ Math Performance

• Examining the Statistics in “Math at Home Adds Up to Achievement in School” by Talia Berkowitz, Marjorie Schaeffer, Erin Maloney, Lori Peterson, Courtney Gregor, Susan Levine and Sian Beilock

• Gabrielle Emanuel: Houman Harouni's New Book on the History of Math Education  (link)

• Jenny Anderson: Teaching Kids Philosophy Makes Them Smarter in Math and English (link)

• Jenny Anderson: The best way to learn math is to learn how to fail productively (link)

• Calculus is Hard. Women Are More Likely to Think That Means They’re Not Smart Enough for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

• A Mathematician Has Created a Teaching Method That’s Proving There’s No Such Thing as a Bad Math Student (link)

• You, Too, Are a Math Person; When Race Comes Into the Picture, That Has to Be Reiterated

• Math Learning for Kids Who Have a Tough Time

• Jo Boaler and Lang Chen: Why Kids Should Use Their Fingers in Math Class

• Gabriela D'Souza on Failure in Learning Math

Also, here are some Twitter discussions on math learning:

• Genes vs. Hard Work in Learning Math

• Noah Smith's Tweetstorm on Making Everyone a 'Math Person'

• The Vicious Self-Fulfilling Prophecy That You Can't Do Math

• Tweets about How to Turn Every Child into a "Math Person"