We all know the despise of math amongst the general school going population. There may be several reasons for that. Paul Lockhart has an entire essay on that called <i>The Mathematician's Lament</i>. There may be several others I haven't read.<p>I am from India. In the last two years of high school in our time we had to choose a specialisation of either science, commerce or arts (humanities). While there are obvious drawbacks to the system (early specialisation and tech people avoiding humanities except two compulsory subjects on vernacular and english literature), we learnt calculus, matrix algebra, probability and statistics in those last two years (those who took science). I am not suggesting the teaching was great or the syllabus was arranged in the best ways. But it was there and we did it. I still use knowledge from my school statistics classes to understand stuff.<p>Now, when I see the US university curriculum even at schools like MIT. They take 3 calc classes before they even get to see the good things like combinatorics, statistics, etc? I mean why? What went wrong? There has to something that I am missing.<p>Anyways, coming back to what I was talking about. It is not helpful to avoid math even at early level as done in India through early specialisation. We always think about an extremely watered down approach or an extremely rigorous approach. There can be a path in between.<p>I think everyone should know some amount of mathematics to a certain level. It makes many things easier and it help seeing things in new ways.<p>I previously wondered why math or physics major could adjust themselves so easily in other related or non-related research fields. Now I get it after learning quite a bit of math myself. It is the thinking process that is the main thing that is earned from majoring in such a subject.<p>We can help students develop logical thinking and mathematical maturity by helping them learn mathematical logic via problems and puzzles.
> Now, when I see the US university curriculum even at schools like MIT. They take 3 calc classes before they even get to see the good things like combinatorics, statistics, etc? I mean why? What went wrong? There has to something that I am missing<p>Unfortunately I don’t have it offhand, and I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but I remember reading something a while back saying that this was the result of Cold War era education reform, when engineering fields were big.
<i>Know what, brother? I tell you that studying the humanities in high school is more important than mathematics — mathematics is too sharp an instrument, no good for kids.</i><p>Stephan Banach quoted by Steinhaus in <i>Through a reporter’s eyes</i>, Roman Kaluza, 1995
> I think everyone should know some amount of mathematics to a certain level.<p>High school math is sufficient for day-to-day life (for the vast majority).<p>When was the last time you used Simpson's rule or computed limits? Maybe you did because your day job depends on writing and maintaining a graphics package. But for the vast majority of people, it <i>may</i> be irrelevant.