"but math is hard..."

[acroyear]

Uncertain Principles: The Innumeracy of Intellectuals:

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I think the lack of respect for math and science is one of the largest unacknowledged problems in today's society. And it starts in the academy-- somehow, we have moved to a place where people can consider themselves educated while remaining ignorant of remarkably basic facts of math and science. If I admit an ignorance of art or music, I get sideways looks, but if I argue for taking a stronger line on math and science requirements, I'm being unreasonable. The arts are essential, but Math Is Hard, and I just need to accept that not everybody can handle it.

This has real consequences for society, and not just in the usual "without math, we won't be able to maintain our technical edge, and the Chinese will crush us in a few years" sense. You don't need to look past the front section of the paper-- our economy is teetering because people can't hack the math needed to understand how big a loan they can afford. We're not talking about vector calculus or analytical geometry here-- we're mired in an economic crisis because millions of our citizens can't do arithmetic. And that state of affairs has come about in no small part because the people running the academy these days have no personal appreciation of math, and thus no qualms about coddling innumeracy.

[...]

... It simply should not be acceptable for people who are ignorant of math and science to consider themselves Intellectuals. Somehow, we need to move away from where we are and toward a place where confusing Darwin with Dirac carries the same intellectual stigma as confusing Bach with Beethoven or Rembrandt with Reubens.

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

I'm nearly incompetent about math - I just really, fundamentally prefer art, history and lit - but I won't argue the point of this article. I think it's true.

However, we are NOT mired in an economic crisis because millions of our citizens can't do arithmetic. We're mired in an economic crisis because of poor regulation of an industry, which then chose to exploit people by giving them ill considered loads for their own very short term profit. Have you heard the This American Life piece on this subject?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

in the comments, someone brings up exactly that. I haven't seen it, but I've read 3 other commentaries on the subject and they've all agreed, so i've a pretty good idea.

yes the larger picture was the deregulation (nothing deregulated ever comes out better than before), but an awareness of math could have helped the homebuyers better recognize when they were being exploited.

As i wrote:

partially, but there was also the lack of accountability at the lower levels, which encouraged them to inflate incomes on forms for approval above. Bob Cringely over at PBS wrote that he actually applied for a loan, and when the final paperwork came back for him to sign, his "income" on the form was double what he originally submitted. When he pointed it out (he actually *read* the document; most don't), the chap on the phone replied "do you want the loan or not?".

THAT kind of irresponsibility is what got the normal people in trouble, feeding the problem up into the speculators you mention which started killing the banks - it all had to go together.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

It's not just math and science that's being overlooked, it's pretty much anything academic any more. Intellectuals and academics no longer seem to have the respect of the masses.

Advanced degrees are looked as ways to further a career not to gain useful knowledge. Too many don't care who Bach, Beethoven, Rembrandt, or Reubens even are let alone being able to confuse them. The days of being a Renaissance Man, knowing a decent amount about a lot, in order to have intelligent conversation, are gone.

We have allowed loud-mouthed anti-intellectuals who spout whatever nonsense
they desire to rule the discourse on too many topics. These days it really is the loudest person is right, no matter if they are blithering hypocritical idiots, who really know nothing of what they speak.

And there are far too many people out to make a buck and not really caring who they hurt or what they do in the process.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

So true!! Thanks to No Child Left Behind, endless tests are being taught, not actual material. It's only rote learning to spit out a bunch of trivia.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

I blame some of this on the current teaching trend to let kids use calculators as early as possible. While I think that our generation suffered too long with having to do long division by hand and not being allowed to use calculators until high school, today's kids can't do simple math on paper, let alone in their heads.

For example, when I went to look for a new phone, the salesman was pushing a plan for $10/month. It was for a lot of minutes that I wouldn't use and politely refused. He pointed out that if I got that plan, I would get a new phone worth up to $100 for free every 2 years. I asked why would I want to spend $240 extra dollars just to get a free $100 phone? That shut him up pretty quickly. Sadly, I don't think most Americans, esp. the "generation Y" or "echo boomers" can do math like that. It's no wonder people can't budget and run up their credit cards.