Students traumatised by maths

Early in session 1 of Jo Boaler's "How to learn math" course, she mentions how maths can actually be traumatic for students; they can become terrified of maths. Yet, this doesn't seem to be the case in other subjects like English class.

This got me thinking about the causes of this trauma. What is being done so differently in maths class compared to other classes?

I can think of two possible causes. 1. Teachers with disturbing punishment practices and 2. the way we, as maths teachers, mark assignments.

As I'm really not sure that the curriculum can be the cause of such widespread trauma. It is not the thing itself that is traumatic, but the way it is presented. So I would have to conclude that the trauma is being caused by the teachers, whether it was intended or not. We've all heard the horror stories, being made to stand in front of your peers and be ridiculed by the teacher to the point of tears for not knowing your 7 times tables, or being yelled at repeatedly to give the right answer to 7 x 8 when you didn't have a clue what it was (actually I remember getting to the point where I was just guessing any number higher than 25), or even being made to write out the times tables over and over as punishment for forgetting to bring your hat to school.

Not all teachers would do these things! I'd like to believe teachers who delve into these practices are a distinct minority (oh please let that be true). So there must be more than this which is causing the students trauma.

What about how we grade maths homework and assignments - tick, cross, cross, cross, tick...or should I say BIG GIANT HUGE RED CROSS and tick, tick, ANOTHER BIG GIANT HUGE CROSS etc. Lets compare this to the English teachers marking... comma, full stop capital letter, square bracket for where a new paragraph should have been, underline a misspelled word and at the end some comment (which to be fair is also often found at the end of a marked maths assignment, "Good job", etc). In English class the emphasis wasn't so much on YOU DID IT WRONG! but rather, oops you made a mistake.

I think it is important that we maths teachers realise that students may be coming to us already traumatised over maths, we're not just maths teachers but also maths healers. These kids are coming through with ideas about mistakes being bad, about maths being only for smart people, about there only being one fixed way to solve a problem. We need to be aware of those feelings that students have and not exacerbate them, and work to change their beliefs about maths.

I swear, as a teacher, that first, I will do no harm.