Joanne Jacobs reports on math being uncool. As the father of two girls I found this factoid disappointing although not surprising…
Girls, especially, are likely to underplay their math interests to avoid being labeled a nerd.
This isn’t surprising either…
The study found, for example, that in the history of the math olympiad, Bulgaria — a country with fewer than 8 million people — has sent a total of 21 girls. The United States has sent three.
And one more factoid that isn’t surprising…
Top math students in the U.S. often are immigrants or the children of immigrants from countries that value math and think everyone can learn it if they try hard enough, the study concluded.
Bold is mine. Count me in on that thinking, although not to an extreme. However, compared to what our schools SHOULD BE teaching our students in math, they are doing a despicable job, aided by parents who believe that math is unimportant.
Just like the national debt and loaning money to people who shouldn’t qualify has come to haunt the United States, the poor state of our math education will do the same. Read the whole post.
