Using Bourdieu's theoretical framework, it becomes possible to theorise the ways in which school mathematics operates to create a form of symbolic violence for those students who do not speak the dominant discourse of mathematics. By providing a number of examples, the chapter explores the nuances of school mathematics discourse and how it operates to exclude students from participating in the discursive interactions that make up the teaching practices, and how this ultimately limits access to the field. In so doing, the myth of ability prevails so that those who enter the field with the forms of culture recognised and validated within the field are more likely to be constructed as effective learners of school mathematics