
G.V. Ramanathan - How much math do we really need? - limist
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/22/AR2010102205451_pf.html
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RiderOfGiraffes
And how much literature, and how much history, and how much music, and how
much sport.

I'll never be a top flight athlete, why should I bother to exercise. I'll
never perform music for others, why should I bother to learn to play. Answer:
they enrich my life, they make me able to do things that I otherwise wouldn't
think about, and would escape my notice entirely.

Similarly math helps me to think critically, and makes me less likely to be
taken in by the blather and spin of the politicians.

If you want a populace that just accepts the "facts" and "statistics" ladelled
to it, and which can be taken in repeatedly by con artists and tricksters, by
all means stop once they can count. And why even both with that? Who needs to
be able to count?

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limist
I'd agree with your thinking - beyond practical uses and the practical need
for a functional democracy to have thinking citizens, knowledge enriches human
life.

What was a bit surprising to me was how contrarian the author was willing to
be publicly. Unless he's just messing with his colleagues and readers, and
perpetuating the status quo where the minority who can use math generally make
a better living than those who can't.

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variety
Rather than dig into the question of whether higher-level math (like calculus)
is really good for the masses or not, I think it's pretty clear that there's
still plenty of room for improvement in making sure that _basic_ quantitative
and critical reasoning skills are taught more broadly and substantially than
they are, at present.

