Think positively,
I have read all comments so far. I am wondering how many of them are really the reasons for children not being able to do mathematics. Please share your personal experience narrating it. This kind of narration will help us understand the problem better. in my opinion we do not even understand what is really happening. At times I wonder whether these are the views of the teachers or students. Whenever I have interacted with children engaging them in mathematics, I have found that they take interest. Let us not promote cribbing as it will not help any one. Do something positive. What should be done? We are all teachers, why are we blaming each other. I hope some positive suggestions will come. In fact change the topic to "How to make mathematics interesting for children?" of "Learners responses to Mathematics" or "Children's Conception of Mathematics".

yes......they do..
because we teachers teach mathematics without arising d need to learn mathematics..and we do not show any connection between mathematics to our real life context....that is why children are afraid of it..

children hate maths because we(parents,teachers etc.)transfer our own fear of maths to children.We never give them chance to see maths in their everyday life.So i think instead of giving children "fearful maths" we should try to give them oppurtunity to work and play...so that they can decide 'what is nature of maths?'.

because of the great focus on only product and not process.till the schooling years children are made to rote ly memeorize the formulas and apply them without even making them understand the reason and the logic behind it.that is really unfortunate for our system.

i think that the way mathematics is taught in the school creates a huge impact on the perception that children have for mathematics. most of the times the teachers donot even themselves have clarity on how concepts lead to one another and at the same time are inter-related to each other. they teach them as isolated entities that have to be mastered by the children. more importantly they are not taught as concepts i.e. giving children opportunities to form them in their minds through varied experiences. concepts are taught as skills. e.g. addition as a concept of adding two quantities is taught as the skill of adding using symbols. the children then dont see the use of concepts that they have learnt with those which they are going to learn. mathematics is also taught completely divorced from the real life...where the children see dont use what they have learnt in their daily lives. its imperative to help children in not just learning meaningfully as well as help them in making connections.......

mind it, its really interesting.i get to know this , when i go to the depth of its concepts ,,,
kabhi socha tha tumne ki hexagon jaisi complex shape bees ke chhatte mein dikhti hain ???? ...........
aur , egyption pyramids ek square pyramids banaate hain ????????? ........
aisi hi bohot si baatein hain , jo maths ko interesting banaati hain.
to meharbaan-kadradaan ,,, jaaniye Maths ko ... jo ki siwaye Generalisations ke aur kuch nhi hai :-)

bcoz mathematics require abstract thinking and much of its examples r not present in daily life,moreover our teachers dont even try to build atleast some connection with child's daily life

in mathematics we only have to see maths in our daily life ..its so interesting..

its bcoz of the education system which focus on passing the exams and not on mastering the concepts