http://www.thoughtcounts.net/2008/07/more-on-innumeracy/ critical analysis and interesting ideas Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:49:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.thoughtcounts.net/2008/07/more-on-innumeracy/comment-page-1/#comment-9778 M Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:50:12 +0000 http://www.thoughtcounts.net/?p=47#comment-9778 I am quite good at math. I have the BS and the MS in math. Like you I get bothered by the number of people who NEED to tell me how they never got it. And yes, even more bothered that it is said with pride. In fairness, however, I do consider math to be my hobby and since I view it as a hobby I don't want to force my hobby on others. I don't really feel that people should be forced to learn algebra if they are truly much more interested in spending their time on the great works of literature or world history. Similarly, I would not want someone forcing me to play golf instead of allowing me to play my piano instead. However, it is the pride in being unable to do everyday math that really does bother me. In answer to the age old question, "Why do we have to learn this stuff?", my father responded "So that when you go to the store you don't get ripped off by someone taking advantage of you." If you have math sense you notice the scams and if you don't have math sense you can sometime depend on the "experts". As an example, our sales tax recently increased from 5% to 6.25%. Now although this is a 25% increase, this does NOT mean that the sales tax rate is 25%. But at the time that this legislation was being passed I read many articles in newspapers that alluded to this being the case. Now either the writer was taking advantage of a math phobic public (he was opposed) or the writer did not understand the distinction himself. I have no problem with people not understanding algebra, geometry, calculus etc. but I do have problems when people brag about not being able to do the math that was taught in 4th, 5th and 6th grade. Just like a believe that everyone should be able to read well enough to read signs and fill out the necessary applications that life requires, I also believe that people should be able to do simple arithmetic in their heads -- multiplying and dividing by 2, multiplying and dividing by 10 as well as being able to figure out the tip at a restaurant and know what 20% off means when they go shopping. I am quite good at math. I have the BS and the MS in math. Like you I get bothered by the number of people who NEED to tell me how they never got it. And yes, even more bothered that it is said with pride. In fairness, however, I do consider math to be my hobby and since I view it as a hobby I don’t want to force my hobby on others. I don’t really feel that people should be forced to learn algebra if they are truly much more interested in spending their time on the great works of literature or world history. Similarly, I would not want someone forcing me to play golf instead of allowing me to play my piano instead. However, it is the pride in being unable to do everyday math that really does bother me. In answer to the age old question, “Why do we have to learn this stuff?”, my father responded “So that when you go to the store you don’t get ripped off by someone taking advantage of you.” If you have math sense you notice the scams and if you don’t have math sense you can sometime depend on the “experts”. As an example, our sales tax recently increased from 5% to 6.25%. Now although this is a 25% increase, this does NOT mean that the sales tax rate is 25%. But at the time that this legislation was being passed I read many articles in newspapers that alluded to this being the case. Now either the writer was taking advantage of a math phobic public (he was opposed) or the writer did not understand the distinction himself. I have no problem with people not understanding algebra, geometry, calculus etc. but I do have problems when people brag about not being able to do the math that was taught in 4th, 5th and 6th grade. Just like a believe that everyone should be able to read well enough to read signs and fill out the necessary applications that life requires, I also believe that people should be able to do simple arithmetic in their heads — multiplying and dividing by 2, multiplying and dividing by 10 as well as being able to figure out the tip at a restaurant and know what 20% off means when they go shopping.

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