[0xpgm]

I've read that in some families, especially from Asian cultures, you're started off with math tuition as soon as you can read.

And some people are just lucky to have the right environment. I happened to have had access to some more advanced books from older relatives as a kid and I noticed that it gave me an edge over my peers in some areas.

[Grustaf]

Asian families, for sure. But that’s doesn’t explain that vast chasm we all observed between non-Asians in school growing up. Why not just accept that it’s possible to be born with an aptitude for math?

[hnfong]

If We closely guard this secret instead of telling people on online forums, We could gaslight people into thinking they are at fault for not being good enough at math. Then We mathematize everything that can be mathematized in higher education and research, and gatekeep it by requiring math even when it's not strictly needed.

(I mean, that's not my opinion, that's just how modern society has been running for... a century or two?)

[Grustaf]

It's not the "access" to those books that gave you an edge, 95% of children would be completely uninterested in those books. As you know, today 100% of Western children have free and instant access to the best math teaching material you could imagine, right from the phones, but math grades keep falling.