It appears that C P Snow’s Two Cultures is alive and well if this monumentally ignorant piece by The Guardian’s Simon Jenkins is anything to go by.
We accept the need for maths in advanced physics and in computing algorithms, much as we accept Greek for archaeology and Anglo-Saxon for early literature. The “mathematics of finance†school at Columbia University is lavishly sponsored by Wall Street firms, for good reason. But that does not mean every primary pupil must spend hours, indeed years, trying to learn equations and πr2, which they soon forget through disuse. Maths is for specialists, so why instil arithmophobia in the rest?
Charge the maths lobby with the uselessness of its subject and the answer is a mix of chauvinism and vacuity. Maths must be taught if we are to beat the Chinese (at maths). Or it falls back on primitivism, that maths “trains the mindâ€. So does learning the Qur’an and reciting Latin verbs.
Meanwhile, the curriculum systematically denies pupils what might be of real use to them and society. There is no “need†for more mathematicians. The nation needs, and therefore pays most for, more executives, accountants, salesmen, designers and creative thinkers.
That attitude betrays quite heroic levels of igorance and prejudice, and it’s not much of a stretch to blame attitudes like his for Britain’s industrial decline. Does he really believe the nation’s economy needs anything like as many archeologists or experts on early literature as it does computer programmers or engineers?
Of course, it’s the programmers and engineers who built the internet infrastructure that enables his ridiculous drivel to reach an audience.
I see your quote has transformed the area of a circle (pi r squared) from the article into pi r 2 – which is the circumference. Does that mark me out as a mathematician and therefore biased in this debate
He also seems to be under the impression that higher mathematics has no practical use. Uses have been found for some surprising things. Imaginary numbers (based on square root of minus 1) may seem like the perfect example of useless abstract – except they have uses in engineering.
To some extent, every academic subject is taught as a basis for moving on to the next level and not aiming for practical relevance. It is a question of how far each of us takes this before dropping subjects we aren’t good at or dislike (or simply don’t have time to do). But allowing people to drop things too early closes off their options.
You could make an argument that some fields within maths are more widely useful that others. For example, it would be beneficial in many ways if a critical mass of the adult population had a basic understanding of statistics and probability theory rather than, say, trigonometry.
Your point about the education system forcing people to choose between a sciences path or a humanities path at too early an age is spot-on.
I do wonder if we’re ill-served by a media that’s overpopulated by people who took the humanities path at 14.
It was the last sentence that struck me: “The nation needs, and therefore pays most for, more executives, accountants, salesmen, designers & creative thinkers.”
I’m reminded of an MD at a multi-national I worked at who arranged the pay grades so that only salesmen could get to the top. “We’re a sales organisation,” he used to say “and without sales we are nothing.” Of course, he had a sales background and he didn’t address the logical conclusion that if a place is full of salesmen, who produces something for them to sell?
The trouble with salesmen is they can’t tell the difference between turnover and profit. At worst, they end up discounting so heavily the business ends up making a loss on each sale. Then the company runs out of money and goes bust.
If they’d paid more attention during maths lessons at school…
Politicians tell us it is the pre-eminent subject. Nonsense. They’re just obsessed with measuring, targetry and control
Maths is important regardless of what politicians think. It’s a gateway to so many other important things. Just because people who work in the “meeja” don’t think they need anything beyond basic numeracy doesn’t mean it’s not important for the rest of the world.
And yes, people in science and engineering who thing the humanities are waste of space are wrong as well.