This column was published on May 4, 2002. I was elected to Saskatoon Public School Board in October 2006. I was ahead of my time.
Who is teaching your child math at school? The chances are very good that he or she did not graduate from the College of Education with a major in math.
Most university grads with a passion for the sciences yearn for the fatter pay cheques that go along with a degree in engineering. Saskatchewan mathematicians who graduate from the College of Education header for greener pastures that await in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario.
According to a senior administrator within the Saskatoon Public School Division, your child may be taught math by a "generalist", not a "specialist" and as is often the case, some teachers given the the task of educating your brainiac may have limited math training.
So why aren't more university students pursuing math excellence? Perhaps because a couple of years earlier, as typical high school students, they found the subject impersonal, academically difficult and undeniably boring. This trend could be a contributing factor and help explain why Stats Canada reported in 1995, Canadian high school students enrolled in math ranked last among 19 industrialized countries.
This could be a breakout year for math students in Canada. When was the last time you saw a major cinematic release chronicle the life and times of a mathematician? I believe the correct answer is never squared. I am referring to a movie titled, A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe.
Crow portrays John Forbes Nash, a brilliant mathematician who, as an undergraduate, proved Brouwer's fixed-point theorem. In the 1950's Nash solved mathematical problems that were not deemed solvable. What separates mega-nerds like John Nash from the rest of the academic food chain is that, if you tell me a math problem can't be solved, I'm going to turn off the calculator and take your word on it. I will skip to proving a multiple-choice question where I only have a 75% chance of being wrong.
In 1958, Nash was described as " the most promising young mathematician in the world." Over the next three decades he suffered from schizophrenic paranoia. He refused medical treatment and spent three years in a delusional funk.
In 1994 Nash was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in economic science. Theoretically speaking, the road to mathematical perfection is paved with logical intentions, but in the world of John Nash, madness and brilliance proved they could occupy the same space.
Watching the story of Nash unravel on the big screen will do little to recruit additional mathematicians to replenish the dwindling stock of college math grads.
How do educators parlay a sense of passion into math curriculum? How does a math teacher convince high school students that an hour of reviewing math twice a week still leaves plenty of time to watch The Simpsons?
It was refreshing and encouraging this week to read of a Saskatoon student whose incredible grasp of mathematics earned him a full scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-valued at over $130,000. To compute that figure into Celsius dollars, you multiply by 3.14 and add the area of the acutest angle available.
Part of the problem is that we parents could use a math makeover. Our loved ones may embrace math with vigour if their owners upgrade their math skills as well. Let's start with the bagel shop owners and convince them a dozen bagels is 12 not 13. Let's make skill testing math questions a little tougher than what is 6 + 2 - 4? Industrialized countries do not tell their best and brightest that it's ok to answer "six of one...half dozen of another." Just say 50/50.
The only ongoing math training I get now is derived from calculating on-the-spot cost savings when purchasing a jumbo bag of potato chips at less than full multiples pricing. I always round up higher to the next bag of ripple chips. I knowingly sacrifice wash boards abs in the name of honing my math skills at Costco.
I will leave the last word to the constipated mathematician who problem-solved... by working it out with a pencil!
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