I am not sure I entirely agree with the premise: eg. you maybe are "dumb" (lack mathematical talent, really), but with proper instruction, you can learn a lot of math.
Let me dive deeper.
Our school system teaches math in a pretty inflexible way: "this is how everyone can get it". But even math talents don't learn it that way: as one, I was usually ahead of the school with my own reasoning (sometimes by a couple of grades) and could backtrack to the school method to understand it and apply it.
Second, if you are good at maths naturally, everything else at school becomes easier: people simply treat you as "smart" in whatever you do just because you have a natural leaning to mathematics (both if they do or don't themselves). Even rote memorization subjects like history and geography become easier since, well, you are "smart": teachers simply do not ask much of you.
And finally, I've met many an extremelly intelligent mathematician (uni professors and math competitors) who simply are outright dumb: they could not process a simple logic statement in human language, even if they were regularly working on advanced research calculus.
So, anyone can learn a lot of math, and doing so requires internalizing the foundations. However, people talented for mathematics find it easy to internalize them in various ways (not always the textbook way), so it's not hard work for them (eg. I could coast through the entire undergrad math and CS program too, cramming for a weekend for all but a couple of exams: memorizing all the axioms and theorems was the struggle, operating with them and proving them once I knew them was comparatively easy and I finished with a GPA equivalent of 3.4 or so).
But math instruction is hard because math is a formal language representing a very specific mindset that not everybody can naturally get. And instruction is usually performed by people not having attained that internalized knowledge of the foundations, thus not being able to look at it and describe it from numerous viewpoints required for individual students.
Finally, we need to fix the society not to equate "good at maths" with "being smart": plenty of smart people who have a hard time with maths, and plenty of math wizards who are outright dumb.
Let me dive deeper.
Our school system teaches math in a pretty inflexible way: "this is how everyone can get it". But even math talents don't learn it that way: as one, I was usually ahead of the school with my own reasoning (sometimes by a couple of grades) and could backtrack to the school method to understand it and apply it.
Second, if you are good at maths naturally, everything else at school becomes easier: people simply treat you as "smart" in whatever you do just because you have a natural leaning to mathematics (both if they do or don't themselves). Even rote memorization subjects like history and geography become easier since, well, you are "smart": teachers simply do not ask much of you.
And finally, I've met many an extremelly intelligent mathematician (uni professors and math competitors) who simply are outright dumb: they could not process a simple logic statement in human language, even if they were regularly working on advanced research calculus.
So, anyone can learn a lot of math, and doing so requires internalizing the foundations. However, people talented for mathematics find it easy to internalize them in various ways (not always the textbook way), so it's not hard work for them (eg. I could coast through the entire undergrad math and CS program too, cramming for a weekend for all but a couple of exams: memorizing all the axioms and theorems was the struggle, operating with them and proving them once I knew them was comparatively easy and I finished with a GPA equivalent of 3.4 or so).
But math instruction is hard because math is a formal language representing a very specific mindset that not everybody can naturally get. And instruction is usually performed by people not having attained that internalized knowledge of the foundations, thus not being able to look at it and describe it from numerous viewpoints required for individual students.
Finally, we need to fix the society not to equate "good at maths" with "being smart": plenty of smart people who have a hard time with maths, and plenty of math wizards who are outright dumb.