My older son went through a year of "I am terrible in math" because he felt that he should know how to do problems before the explanation and not waiting until he had been given the explanation (and then he had spent the time of the explanation stewing about how bad he was and hadn't been able to concentrate on the explanation). It took him a year of me constantly pointing out how "mathy" he was in everyday moments and how the rest of the world just doesn't look at everyday moments in quite the logical/mathy way he does. I think he is over this particular negative view or if he isn't he doesn't say it out loud anymore. His teacher this year (8th grade) had him for about 9 weeks in his sixth grade year (she was teaching all 8th grade classes but had to teach one 6th grade class until they got funding for another math teacher and she was able to move back to teaching all 8th grade classes) and she thinks he is just a brilliant math student and I hope that her positive attitude and confidence about his abilities rubs off on him.
I don't think he has ever really been under-placed in his math instruction where this attitude would be learned. I think he has always been appropriately challenged in math...I don't know what happened other than possibly an off comment by a 4th grade teacher that to any other kid wouldn't have even registered.
