Poor numeracy 'blights the economy and ruins lives'

Derivative

An earlier poster has stated that because the school system failed them, they shouldn't feel ashamed of not being numerate.

Well - my school didn't teach me how to write a CV. They didn't teach me how to use the Internet, they didn't teach me how to drive a car. They didn't teach me many things.

That doesn't mean I didn't feel ashamed at not being able to do (some of) those basic tasks.

Mathematics is something which is very easy to pick up simply because it can be self-assessed incredibly easily. You can take a textbook and mark yourself from the answer section in the back.

That cannot be done with English, nor History, nor many other subjects (except at a very basic multiple choice level).

For this reason I still fail to understand how people can proudly state "I was never any good at Maths". You're openly admitting to not putting an effort in one of the simplest areas of your knowledge that could be improved.