I also agree with Tracy W. More high school and college students need to value math education because it provides a window of opportunities throughout one’s life that you can never anticipate. An art major may think they will never have to use math, but even basic principles like loan interest rates, etc. can help you save money and not be conned into investing in something that is truly a rip off. Also, career and major changes are so common these days that a math education will make you a well-rounded person. I think it should be required all 4 years. If they are not taking math their senior year then it should be other math-related courses such as economics.

I never really thought about it before but there is a lot to be said for studying processes. Management theorists, Frederick W. Taylor and W Edwards Deming, both heavily emphasize studying processes and measurement. I do not think educators think the work of these men add anything of value to evaluating instruction.

One of Deming’s Management Obligations is Drive Out Fear. Other wise the researcher/manager would never learn what is really going on. I think that is a big obstacle in our schools.

Also consider that, if the jury doesn’t know any better, an ‘expert’ could stretch the truth beyond belief, and be believed by default because he/she is an expert.

I would also think cases where money was misappropriated would be best served with juries with basic Math skills.

In a comment gbl3rd says, “No one agrees on what good math instruction is because it can only be judged by results. Usually instruction is judged by some philosophical or psychological concept.” I certainly agree with the second sentence in this quote, but I’m not so sure about the first sentence, or what we might infer from that first sentence. Results may be what ultimately counts, but I think there is a lot to be gained by looking very carefully at the process. I further think that the field of education has done a very poor job at looking carefully at the process. Indeed I wonder if our goal of being “data driven” has actually worked against our ability to look closely at what actually happens in the classroom. I have more thoughts on this at http://www.brianrude.com/lackdes.htm

I also disagree that graduating from high school with a strong academic curriculum makes you any better a citizen, let alone making you able to understand the world we live in. Maybe I am prejudiced by knowing some very “smart” people who teach at Cornell who don’t have the slightest clue about how the world works.

Basic psychology, basic economics, and basic statistics would be much more useful tools.

Reading and becoming self-informed, along with the ability and understanding to separate fact from opinion, are crucial to understanding the world we live in. And the ability to separate fact from opinion is not taught in high school, nor did I learn it in college. It took several years of law school to become adept at that particular skill (although the basics of it are easy, it takes constant practice to readily recognize BS when you come across it).

Look at any newspaper article and see if you can separate fact from opinion in the article. One hint: look at the adjectives, and if they are positive or negative, rather than neutral, you are looking at the writer’s opinion and not fact.

Basic math up through simple algebra, I definitely agree. But more advanced stuff is highly unlikely to be relevant to serving on a jury…

Even if you don’t use one of those four subjects in your college major or at your job, you need them for those times when you’re serving on a jury, or voting for your Congress member and/or the President based on what legislation they drafted and/or signed or vetoed.

Lawyers love juries that don’t understand Math or Science, and politicians love voters that don’t understand Math or Science. Those people are so easy to fool!

I think the standard Math curriculum in the U.S. should be:
8th Grade: Algebra I
9th Grade: Geometry
10th Grade: Algebra II
11th Grade: PreCalculus (Trig, Logarithims)
12th Grade: either Calculus or Statistics

greifer,

I agree the the problem is frequently poor math instruction and not the amount of it. No one agrees on what good math instruction is because it can only be judged by results. Usually instruction is judged by some philosphical or psychological concept.