From: Bill.Kaigh@f64.n381.z1.fidonet.org (Bill Kaigh)
Newsgroups: k12.ed.math
Subject: Mathematics Awareness vs. Innumeracy
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 15:29:49 PST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:381/64 - Academy K12 Net, El Paso TX

        1992 Mathematics Awareness Week 
        April 26-May 2   MATH & THE ENVIRONMENT
   We know it is important to be literate, to be able to read and
write and to communicate effectively. It is readily apparent to
us how important literacy is in the work place. Being numerate
is equally important, though a facility with numbers is not often
regarded as vital for an educated person in our society. In fact,
the opposite is often and unfortunately true. Many Americans
regard their inability to deal with numbers as acceptable, even
fashionable. We mistakenly lump a national discomfort with
simple arithmetic into a notion that handling numbers well is
irrelevant--and even a wasteful preoccupation or a boring skill.
   Our national willingness to avoid what is now the language
of technology is having disastrous results. Let us review a few
facts. U.S. students recently ranked 14th out of 20 countries in
an international comparison of 8th grade mathematics
achievement. Of the four million or so 10th grade students now
taking mathematics, only about one eighth or 500,000 of them
are still likely to be interested in pursuing any kind of
mathematically related career by the time of high school
graduation. U.S. citizens received less than half of the
doctorates in mathematics awarded by U.S. institutions of
higher education two years ago, and the proportion 43%, was
the lowest ever recorded. Moreover, women received only
22% of the mathematics doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens.
   The ideas we convey to our children, to our students, and to
our fellow workers about numeracy are part of our national
culture. If that culture is one that reflects an interest in a
facility with numbers and abstract ideas, then we will
encourage technological literacy in our society.
   The National PTA mailed packets of materials to PTAs
nationwide in an effort to encourage local groups to think and
talk their way around the many phobias that turn American
students off to math. That kit of activities, Math Matters:  Kids
are Counting On You, has just been published in Spanish.
   Our children are counting on us. We know that American
children are as capable as those in other countries. They do not
generally do as well in mathematics because they do not take
enough mathematics courses and because they do not progress
fast enough in the courses they do take. But programs to
popularize mathematics have met with extraordinary success.
   During Mathematics Awareness Week let us work together to
stress the importance of numeracy as a foundation for careers
in science, technology and managerial jobs. President Bush
recently urged us on again toward excellence in mathematics
and science by the year 2000. Now is an excellent time to start
working toward this goal so that we will be more than ready
for the technological world and work place of the next century.


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