Robbing opportunities with the inner voice

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On the surface it may seem that we are giving equal opportunities to everyone to study mathematics at university. Of course, we know that it is not completely true because many factors play an important role, like differences in economic and social background - being well off and having people supporting you makes opportunities seem more real. Still, the fact is that, where I am, everyone has the right to go to university and, therefore, everyone has the right to study mathematics.

But even before going to university, children and youngsters may already have been robbed of the opportunity, not because of lack of financial or external support, but by lack of internal support. Robbing opportunities this way works very simply: convince children that they are inferior to others (because, e.g., they belong to a given group), convince them that they cannot do it, convince them that they do not belong somewhere. This process will create an inner voice in the child that will whisper relentlessly; the whisper will tell them how to interpret life, to what they should pay attention to, to which activities they should restrict themselves. This inner voice will shout in moments of challenge and remind them that they are inherently inferior and incapable. Then, if someone tends their hand to them and asks "do you want to study mathematics?", they will run away or underperform, because they cannot do it (or do it so well), because they do not belong. They have been robbed of their internal support and this causes an opportunity to not be seen as an opportunity. 

If we cannot see opportunities, we cannot take them.



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