The New York Times asks how we can improve our nation's children's math scores. Here is the comment I submitted.
In short:
FIRST, we should address our nation's problems. THEN if we have time and energy left, if people want to learn math and increase our math scores, great.
But at the current time, "math" is a distraction from dealing with our actual problems, and, as such, efforts to put MORE resources into it are, in my mind, absolutely misguided.
If we want to teach people HOW TO REASON, we don't need math for that, and, besides, the people I know who are great at math are no better at reasoning on social issues than anyone else, and are, in many ways, WORSE at "being reasonable" at communicating with other human beings who were not socialized in the academic-math mould.
I still have nightmares about the recurring front-cover stories in Time, Newsweek, Fortune, etc. all of which say
TECHNOLOGY IS WHAT WILL SAVE US!
No it won't. Actually, by itself, blind applications of technology in local contexts is tending to make things worse. The more we "solve" local problems, the more we create even more global problems, out of sight of the local "solution". The harder we work, the worse state we're in.
If you've dug yourself into that kind of hole,
my advice is: "stop digging."
Here's the comment that I posted to the Times, that may or may not show up later today on-line:
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Improving math competency (and scores) is a hard task, and one that requires understanding psychosocial factors. In particular, we need to recognize the fact that cultural context is a more powerful determinant of behavior and mediator of learning than anything teachers or parents can do locally in a school environment. So long as we immerse our children in a TV culture that debases knowledge and intelligence, and doesn't even mention wisdom let alone revere it, what we get out of that context-determined schooling is exactly what we built into it -- we get adults that are proud of their ignorance. We did that, not the teachers, not the \"school system\", that is immersed in that culture. If we don't like the output, we need to change the context, not the \"contents\". If that's hard, then it's time to buckle down. If we don't know how to do it, then that's what we should allocate research dollars towards finding out.
That said, what's up with the almost worship of math and science, when we simultaneously depict scientists in the media as fools, dupes, or evil forces? Who wants to grow up to be a scientist or engineer any more? And if they did, what are the odds of competing with the candidates from Singapore or China? For what job in what industry located in what city?
It might appeal more to our personality-type to decide instead to develop our children into true world leaders, trained in mediation and leadership skills, and make that our new specialty area. That would require developing reasoning skills, ability to create or analyze an argument, ability to listen and communicate to many different perspectives, etc. Non-linear systems thinking would be great, but that doesn't require math so much as exposure.
Put it this way -- how much better would our nation be if our congressmen and women all had joint PhD's in math and science? Would THAT break the logjam in governance that's destroying our ability to act in our own behalf these days?
In short, if we really want higher math scores, let's get crystal clear in our heads, and our media, WHY we want them, and WHERE such accomplishments are actually going to take us.
A big enough \"why\" will create the \"how\". But be prepared to be challenged by the children when they ask what job, where, is at the end of that long march -- and if we don't know, then start there and work backwards towards math, if, indeed, more math is our best route to that objective.
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Prior posts on this issue:
W. Edwards Deming on the "deadly disease" of relying on technology to solve social problems and what's wrong with our educational system as a whole.
Why more math and science are NOT what we need.
The ten most important lessons from physics, none of which require math.
Problems with "reason" as a problem solving approach.
Overall, as T. S. Eliot warns, we have become a society "dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good." Mathematics is not by itself evil -- I love math and am very good at it, due to an astounding number of hours of effort to learn it and a good school system. But math is not some kind of automatic ticket to social prosperity, nor is math excellence a guaranteed ticket any more to a career in science or technology, and THOSE are not, in turn, some kind of automatic ticket to solving our social problems either.
Yo. LISTEN UP! STOP DIGGING, PEOPLE!
Even more of the same will not improve our lot in life, but WILL consume our time, energy, and resources. More of the same is the ultimate in "quack solutions" to symptoms, and won't even cure those, in fact.
If the problems are NOT technical in nature, then the solution is probably not technical in nature either, people!
The LAST thing in the world we should do is divert resources from social sciences into math or the physical sciences. That would only seal our doom, handcuffing ourselves to a sinking cinderblock the in sea of troubles.
If you want to see clearly, remove ALL TECHNOLOGY from the table. Erase it from the picture. Don't fret about technological problems, including weapons of mass destruction, adequate water, adequate food, adequate energy, climate change, etc. Don't look to science for answer, solutions, or careers. Erase all that.
Then, look at what's left on the table. Here's what I see:
1) The biggest problem is us -- other people
2) A huge issue is the delusion that our technology is a "magic bullet" that will fix things.
3) An issue is our unwillingness to perceive, to believe, that blind faith in the magic bullet actually is now making our lives worse.
4) Until and unless we learn how to reason together on this, how to be reasonable and good listeners, there will be no solution.
5) Math and science do NOT teach us how to be reasonable people. Scientists, bless them, if anything, live in their own fantasy world where the messiness of human society does not intrude. Their solution, to only look at the parts of the world that are easy to quantify and express with math, is not a good solution and doesn't fit the problem at hand.
6) This phrase has the key to the answer: "Spiritual solutions to economic problems."
7) Figure out what's wrong with the human spirit and our human community, and the rest will yield to you. You don't need math for that -- you need EYES and an open HEART.
8) If teaching math in school distracts from learning how to work with each other, defer it until we master those lessons first.
9) Oh, and wake up people. The REASON you have inattention, drop-outs, and violence in school is that school doesn't even come close to providing ANSWERS for the actual human problems that the students face today.
If something is going to be PUT OFF and DEFERRED, the wrong thing to put off is the students' actual needs for something that actually, in the real world, helps them with their perceived problems. The right thing to put off is mathematics, etc.
It's not the students who are broken here, and not listening or learning. It's the school system. It's US. Children are, by their entire biological nature, astoundingly powerful learning machines. If they're not learning, we're doing something terribly wrong.
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