I did math intuitively as a child and nobody stopped me- probably because nobody expected me (as a girl in a southern town) to really need math beyond balancing a checkbook. I actually adored math and loved just knowing the answer and then proving the answer to be true by plugging it in- particularly in Algebra.
When I got to college and thought it would be fun to take Calculus as a freshman English/Theatre major, my math world came crashing down a bit. The professor there used a model that involved programming the computer to solve the problems. In other words, we had to teach the computer how to get there. I took a 5 credit B hit to my GPA and considered math done.
I thankfully still love math. But I do wonder what I could have gotten from it if I'd known better how to get to where I was getting. I've gone back and taught myself some and continue to do so, but I sure wish someone had insisted on my knowing the process earlier on.
