Teaching mathematics

Indeed, at a workshop on mathematics held last week by the School Leadership Centre and the RBTT Education Foundation, a child psychologist labelled poor mathematics teaching as “cruel and unusual punishment.” This may seem hyperbolic, but the fact is that an inability to do even simple arithmetic does have negative outcomes. Those consequences range from the individual being unable to manage their finances properly, to misdiagnoses of health risks, to poor policy decisions made because of a poor grasp of statistics.

So how many people realise that an item whose price has been increased by 50 percent and then reduced by 50 percent has had a net reduction in price of 25 percent? If people were taught that there are 3,838,380 ways to choose six numbers out of a possible 40, would they be less inclined to play Lotto? Should people worry more about dying prematurely from heart disease, traffic accidents, or AIDS? (Here’s a hint: which do you do more often - eat, drive, or have unprotected sex?) When spending taxpayers’ money on government buildings, do politicians calculate the expected returns on such expenditure?

It is important for people to have basic numeric skills. But maths is perceived by many as a “hard subject.” This it may be, but it is made harder by poor teaching. Because of that, even persons who pass mathematics often do so without understanding the subject’s core principles, and so are unable to use it meaningfully after they write their exams. Those who do grasp the axioms often do so purely because of their innate talent — and, as this country’s performance at the Maths Olympiad has shown, we have such talent in fair abundance. Other barriers are psychological — there is a popular misconception that thinking logically somehow damages a person emotionally. Even if this were true, it is quite obvious that emotions unrestrained by reason cause far more injury than logic ever does.

The key question, however, is what can be done to reduce innumeracy amongst the general populace. The answer lies in our schools. Children should be taught how to do calculations from pre-school. But this must not be done through a formalised approach, but through the use of riddles, games and puzzles. Nor should math be allowed to become boring at higher levels.

Why can’t primary school children be taught the relationship between speed and time by calculating how long it would take Harry Potter to catch the Snitch if his Firebolt broom is travelling at 100 kph and the Snitch is flying at 75 kph 500 metres ahead of him? Why shouldn’t secondary school students be asked to calculate by what factor is a moko jumbie taller than a normal human being? What about asking university students to work out geometrical equations for the movement of Carnival bands in Port-of-Spain?

Improving numeracy would not only help people organise their lives better, and even be less stressed over improbable events, but it would also allow the society to be arranged among more rational lines. And, since a cornerstone of the Government’s Vision 2020 programme is more technical education, then numeracy must be the foundation on which that structure is built.