Seeing the problem as numeracy vs. innumeracy distracts us from the real issue, which is a growing gap between the expert tendency toward technical analysis and the public's moral perspective. It is not that the public denies the importance of quantitative literacy. The debate is about priorities. Discussions of quantitative literacy, if they are advanced in isolation from the context of broader moral and value concerns, are more likely to alienate the public than to win public support. All of our research suggests the public sees education in terms of a certain order and a certain set of priorities.
People believe that unless the fundamentals are in place, the next steps are jeopardized.
Their view is that the shift toward computers and high-technology has made basic mathematics even more essential, not less so. It is not that people think higher order skills are unimportant, but rather that the public is even more concerned about two other issues. The first is that people believe that until the basics are acquired, nothing else can be learned at all. Secondly, they believe many children in today's schools are not acquiring the basics. The debate about higher order thinking is, for them, a secondary issue since they are convinced that children will never acquire higher-order skills until they have learned to read, write, count and behave.