Shameless self-promotion
I have a story in The Atlantic today on the apparently never-ending debate over whether kids should learn more than arithmetic. If you had told me 10 years ago I would be championing algebra, even calculus, I would have laughed. But here I am. I also eat cauliflower fairly regularly (when I find the fractal ones), so I have become one of THOSE PEOPLE.
A.K. Whitney 
We have a long history at SUNY Potsdam in helping all college students to learn mathematics regardless of those barriers you discuss. I think you would like to hear more about the history of Clarence Stephens (who started this) and how his legacy has continued. Please contact us! madorebf@potsdam.edu
I hate numbers. I can’t remember them and they make no sense to me. I don’t even remember the times table. I am glad you found some math classes that you liked. But as a retired teacher (I taught biology and then became a librarian) I talked to many kids who hated history. It made no sense to them. Now that was hard to accept because it was only words. So go figure. Making kids take higher math classes in high school does make them drop out. I saw it. But making kids take lots of word based classes does too. It just might not be the subject, but the method.