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US society/culture in general is the main cause of this problem as most people here do not value math. Math requires deep, creative and original thinking and th
by tmptmp 10y ago
US society/culture in general is the main cause of this problem as most people here do not value math. Math requires deep, creative and original thinking and thinking is rather difficult to perform act. It seems that the US culture derides analytical thinking in general, with many popular public figures flaunting their "inability to do math" as some sort of great achievement and sending out a loud and clear messages, like, "don't analyze just enjoy your life and avoid math as math means analysis". This paper titled "Student Apathy: The Downfall of Education" [1] is a good read in this respect too.
The bad effects of such societal level bias against math can be seen in public spending in schools also. Enormous amounts of money are spent on football coaches/teams[2] in schools whereas not enough money for math teachers/students.
The society seems to equate success only with one's ability to earn money. Then you can see that many such popular public figures "getting successful" without math as they can be seen to earn large amounts of money.
This is sad as such people even if are successful on money front, cannot understand any of the complex aspects of modern societal/business/political structures (be it, things like privacy issues, or many public policy issues like taxes) and of course cannot understand any of the modern technological/scientific discussions (be it discussions regarding global warming or genetically modified food or statistical significance of some tests).
[1] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1968613 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1968613
[2] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case-against-high-school-sports/309447/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/the-case...
- pizza 10y agoChina comes to mind. They seem more technocratic than we (USA) do (legalist hierarchy?). Can you imagine Deng Xiaoping saying, "Ha, I'm just a policy guy" or something alike
- etangent 10y ago>> It seems that the US culture derides analytical thinking in general, with many popular public figures flaunting their "inability to do math" as some sort of great achievement and sending out a loud and clear messages, like, "don't analyze just enjoy your life and avoid math as math means analysis" I am generally not a fan of speaking in terms of "privilege" and "identity", but this is precisely an example of "developed Western country privilege". The attitude goes, "See, I can still be successful/well-off without having to hunch down and study math like those third-world FOB immigrants do." It comes down to status signalling: not having to do math becomes a status signal. It also appears it is mostly this attitude and not the widely blamed "bro culture" that is the major reason why women (in the West, because this didn't happen elsewhere) abandoned CS sometime in the late 80s/90s.
- germinalphrase 10y agoAlso, marketing. In the 1980's, consumer level computers were being marketed as "boy toys" and american culture internalized the idea.
- closeparen 10y ago>Math requires deep, creative and original thinking and thinking That is absolutely not true of anything the average non-math-major has ever been exposed to under the heading "math." It's rote symbol manipulation requiring diligence, practice, and attention to detail. American K12 math education asks for fast and reliable algorithm execution, not insight. Only math majors and attendees of a few exceptional private high schools will ever seriously engage with proofs.