I agree that it starts very early in a child’s life. But one thing that has been ignored is unconscious attitudes toward science and math, especially math.
If the parents make a horrible face when math is mentioned, say it was their worse subject, or talk about how boring, useless, and hard it is, the attitude is embedded very young and is therefore immutable.
In other families, math and science are spoken about in terms of how fascinating they are. Or it is just a natural part of life and learning, without anything having to be said or taught about how wonderful it is.
All through school I was terrible at foreign languages including Spanish, I lived in a Mexican neighborhood most of my friends spoke both English and Spanish, MATH was the one foreign language (and yes, it is a language with lots of dialects) I HAD TO LEARN.
My job later in life required advanced mathematics if I wanted to do it well.
(hydraulics and fluid dynamics)
Well said and so true.