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What Happened To Numeracy?
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Not sure what the PM means by, pupils will study Maths until 18, I assume he means the ones that are still in education. Anyway I find it shocking that:
"Around eight million adults in England have the numeracy skills of primary school children, " - so what happened? Why are we so innumerate as a nation? I'm not talking about Calculus here just basic 'rithmetic.
Not sure what the PM means by, pupils will study Maths until 18, I assume he means the ones that are still in education. Anyway I find it shocking that:
"Around eight million adults in England have the numeracy skills of primary school children, " - so what happened? Why are we so innumerate as a nation? I'm not talking about Calculus here just basic 'rithmetic.
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Just reading this reinforces my whole feelings on this. Who needs to know about parsecs? Only people who are interested/good at mathematics. No-one is stopping them from learning it. Please do.
I've been screaming this all day elsewhere: Most people just need Arithmetic - Mathematics is for specialists. If you haven't learned Arithmetic by 16 another 2 years will make no difference and cause huge problems and disruption in schools.
I go back a long way now. My very ordinary County Primary School in the 1950s taught Arithmetic well, with mental Maths tests every Friday. During my brief few years in an independent school, I taught in the same way. The children knew their tables and could add up etc. accurately and quickly - as could I.
I struggled with Maths. at Grammar School, but worked conscientiously and managed to just pass the (much harder than GCSE) GCE at the second go by concentrating on the Arithmetic questions. 1st time I'd tried Trig. and all sorts of other things.
It was a deep relief to be rid of it and work at Literature, Art and History. But I could do Arithmetic (including percentages, compound interest, basic geometry (tiling) etc.) well - far better than the youngsters today, and it was all I have ever needed. They can't do simple addition in their heads in my experience.
Why can't they do it? Well, I'm using my own experience here. I did many years as a supply teacher, for various reasons, and when I settled down in a 2000+ Comp in Bradford in the '90's there was only a part-time job available, so the school used the other hours to employ me as general cover for a while.
Maths. Dept. was an eye-opener. All rooms had a massive 'tables square' on one wall - to which the pupils could refer. The theory was that they would absorb their tables automatically - the reality was somewhat different. They had calculators for basic tasks, but because they had no notion of what the approximate answer should be I was faced with answers such as 20, 2,000 etc. when the answer should be 200 - they'd hit the wrong key, but knew no different.
Once, covering a lesson with a really lovely top group, which I knew from teaching them Eng., the teacher had set a page of simultaneous equations. The instruction I had was 'I've explained all the theory, just let them get on with it'.
After 15 mins. a bright kid stuck his hand up. No-one in the room understood them. I knew how to solve the things (I'd learned by rote) so I showed them how to do it. They were thrilled and worked silently and happily for the rest of the lesson.
The Maths. teacher wasn't very pleased (but the staff covered for me) because she said they didn't understand. But they got the right answers and that was enough for them and me.
That's what went wrong. Most people just need how to do Arithmetic and the Govt. wanted them to be mathematicians. Result: neither.
Gosh, this is long, sorry.
I've been screaming this all day elsewhere: Most people just need Arithmetic - Mathematics is for specialists. If you haven't learned Arithmetic by 16 another 2 years will make no difference and cause huge problems and disruption in schools.
I go back a long way now. My very ordinary County Primary School in the 1950s taught Arithmetic well, with mental Maths tests every Friday. During my brief few years in an independent school, I taught in the same way. The children knew their tables and could add up etc. accurately and quickly - as could I.
I struggled with Maths. at Grammar School, but worked conscientiously and managed to just pass the (much harder than GCSE) GCE at the second go by concentrating on the Arithmetic questions. 1st time I'd tried Trig. and all sorts of other things.
It was a deep relief to be rid of it and work at Literature, Art and History. But I could do Arithmetic (including percentages, compound interest, basic geometry (tiling) etc.) well - far better than the youngsters today, and it was all I have ever needed. They can't do simple addition in their heads in my experience.
Why can't they do it? Well, I'm using my own experience here. I did many years as a supply teacher, for various reasons, and when I settled down in a 2000+ Comp in Bradford in the '90's there was only a part-time job available, so the school used the other hours to employ me as general cover for a while.
Maths. Dept. was an eye-opener. All rooms had a massive 'tables square' on one wall - to which the pupils could refer. The theory was that they would absorb their tables automatically - the reality was somewhat different. They had calculators for basic tasks, but because they had no notion of what the approximate answer should be I was faced with answers such as 20, 2,000 etc. when the answer should be 200 - they'd hit the wrong key, but knew no different.
Once, covering a lesson with a really lovely top group, which I knew from teaching them Eng., the teacher had set a page of simultaneous equations. The instruction I had was 'I've explained all the theory, just let them get on with it'.
After 15 mins. a bright kid stuck his hand up. No-one in the room understood them. I knew how to solve the things (I'd learned by rote) so I showed them how to do it. They were thrilled and worked silently and happily for the rest of the lesson.
The Maths. teacher wasn't very pleased (but the staff covered for me) because she said they didn't understand. But they got the right answers and that was enough for them and me.
That's what went wrong. Most people just need how to do Arithmetic and the Govt. wanted them to be mathematicians. Result: neither.
Gosh, this is long, sorry.
10cs "I know what a parsec is and how it is used. Not being a professional astronomer or mathematician, why do I need to know more than that?" - TBF I mentioned that out of exasperation after a much simpler calculation. Ok I'm game explain what a parsec is? TBF I started with an equally simple calculation, though I must admit to being disappointed that many didn't even get that right.
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