Yes, Math matters

Yes, Math matters April 26, 2015

Here’s a Nicholas Kristof column in the Times today, “Are You Smarter Than an 8th Grader?

The Educational Testing Service released a global report finding that young adults from the United States rank poorly in reading but are even worse in math — the worst of all countries tested. This is the generation that will be in the labor force for the next half-century, struggling to compete with citizens of other countries.

It’s not just that American results are dragged down by poverty. Even American millennials with graduate degrees score near the bottom of international ranks in numeracy.

(Here is the report he references.)

He doesn’t really go into any policy prescriptions, but, as is often the case, the comments to his piece are instructive, because it clearly indicates that, before we get to the question of “how do we fix this?” we have to persuade Americans that it matters for them to know anything other than basic arithmetic.

After all, in a “NYT pick” comment, Rose in PA Pennsylvania says,

I teach middle school so I found your column interesting. You found data about things American 8th graders can’t do. I would like to tell you things they can do: write, produce and star in their own variety show; play clarinet in the school band; create powerpoints with video and music; write persuasive essays; raise money for a children’s hospital, and smile and brightly answer my “good morning!” In kind every day on the way to homeroom. American 8th graders are kind, thoughtful, inclusive, bright and funny. That matters much more to me than whether they can answer some math questions.

Which is pretty appalling.  There is no reason why American students shouldn’t be able to do all of these things, AND perform better at math.  And, if they can’t, sorry but a solid math education is more important than learning how to create powerpoints.   Instead we have a situation where any education beyond Algebra II is considered “optional.”  (See my prior post from March.)

And at the college level — because even though Kristof’s examples are from an 8th grade test, the report he cites is about adults — the Wall Street Journal (I came across this in looking for remedial class stats, which are apparently hard to come by) reports that some colleges are considering making remedial classes optional — for instance, ” Florida has scrapped mandatory remedial education for students who test poorly and instead allows them to choose for themselves whether to take developmental courses.”

Happily enough, many of the NYT readers, unlike Rose in PA, agree that it is a problem that we have made it “OK” to do poorly in math and cease trying as soon as you’re allowed.  But how, other than parent by parent, student by student, do we move away from this attitude?

 


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