Pop Culture Doesn’t Do Math Any Favors
by Glynnis Kirchmeier
The Economic and Social Research Council of England has recently come out with some interesting (if unsurprising) information on why British students do not choose to study mathematics: they believe that it is an irrelevant field dominated by old white middle-class men, and also it’s geeky. The former is a problem because anyone who is not white, male, middle class or who plans never to become old (and what young person does, really?) may feel uncomfortable entering the field without a clearly defined peer group. The second reason is a problem because while it’s okay to be educated, you have to be cool about it too.
This is a problem in the United States as well: since the end of the Cold War the numbers of students studying “hard” sciences and math have quickly declined. The numbers are even more concerning if you look only at home-grown students, not immigrants. Many, many bright math students from Eastern Europe and particularly Russia have masked the lowered levels of math graduate students in the United States, who are almost certainly a result of lowered educational standards at the primary level. (The recent scandal in Tacoma over math WASL scores is a great example: in short, about half of the students who take it here do not pass the math section, and so the initial response was to lower the math standards. Brilliant. Clearly. I’m not sure of the current discussion surrounding it, though I hope they came up with a better idea than dumbing it down.) Now that things are looking up in that region of the world, more Eastern Europeans are choosing to study in their home countries, leaving us even worse off.
Many students struggle to see the point of math. I empathize with that. My understanding of math’s usefulness has come entirely from my encounters with it in college, not in high school. I think we watched a documentary on the mathematician who solved Fermat’s Last Theorem, but that was so abstract that I did not walk away from the class thinking, “Wow, math applies to my life so much!” That was pretty much it as far as teaching us relevance. If students do not see the relevance of a subject they will be much less likely to study it – especially in comparison with other subjects like, say, Philosophy or English, whose benefits are indirect. And math is difficult at times (though, I’ve found, less than it is hyped to be). So if a student has to choose between two fields, and the perception is that both are unlikely to be useful in getting a job/daily life, the average student will probably go for the easier subject.
Plus, if someone studies Shakespeare, they can totally whip out pretentious references to Richard III and people will generally allow it. Because that’s our cultural heritage, you know. But if a math person tries to do the same, they will get shunned for being a jerk and without social skills even though they are pulling the exact same arrogant move as the Shakespearean scholar.
England’s educational system also requires students to know what they want to study much earlier than the US educational system. If I had wanted, I could have delayed declaring a major until this fall, when I will be almost 21. In contrast students in England must declare their course of study – which they cannot change without great difficulty – at age 16 or so. This is a time when being uncool is the most painful thing in the world, and as we all know, pop culture mercilessly stereotypes the number crunchers. Teenagers have the double problem of being extremely hard on each other when enforcing social boundaries (they are more dangerous versions of that six year old bully who punched you for wearing glasses in kindergarten) and being very unwilling to go against group culture.
Emotional maturity has something to do with it too; wanting to stick with a field that can be frustrating is a skill that develops over time. I know that if I asked my 16-year-old self what I would study, she would not have chosen to get a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics. Although, again, that is partially the fault of the educational system: for reasons that were never clear to me I was put on the “not smart” math track, which went slower, and I never took Calculus in high school. Therefore I didn’t think I was “qualified” or “smart enough” to take higher level mathematics.
May 13th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
The problem with Math & Science is that governments and school systems are constantly trying to plug them as the fate and future of the nation, and then simultaneously deprive students of any incentives to take Math & Science seriously. It’s no accident that Business is the most popular major in college – it leads to the highest salaries (with some exception, i.e. engineering, pharmaceuticals etc.) Most Math/Science based professions gross only a modest salary and this will never change because its cheaper for US corporations to “buy-brains-abroad” – particularly from Eastern Europe and India – than it is to invest in these unpopular and largely uninspiring subjects. Free-Traders can talk about how we live in a global service-based economy where the only resources that matter are those in the mind: but trade barriers do matter. When the Russian’s shot Sputnick into the sky they proved we had fallen behind scientifically but no one disputed that we were WAYYY ahead economically.
If you wanna improve Math/Science programs then provide public schools with an incentive to find leaders in said fields (a six-figure salary would be a good start). But why would anyone want to invest that kind of money when for only $500 a month you can outsource an engineering expert or a hydroalisit.
The WASL is a huge mistake, period. We should abolish it immediately. It is based on a flawed theory of pedagogy that takes students and teachers out of equation. Essentially the State has decided it can do a better job of teaching then the teachers it certified and so has chosen to alter their entire curriculum just so student can spend 1-3 months of every school year preparing for a test that serves no greater purpose than the SAT.
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May 14th, 2008 at 12:18 am
It’s interesting that you suggest the mainstream culture treats mathematics like a second degree area of study. In Ultimate (Frisbee) culture, I’d say that maybe 60% of players work in Mathematics, Engineering and the Sciences. Curiously, Ultimate is becoming a more mainstream sport, and should it avoid being infected with the stigma of athletes perhaps it may one day influence a rise in math and sciences. In Ultimate those folks are respected, because they’re really the majority.
I don’t know that this comment means anything (I’m a little tired), but it’s just interesting to think about where a lot of those folks go.
I agree with what Chris said that there should be more incentives for students to take Math & Science, maybe pop culture can influence that, but maybe it should just be something that can be required and treated with pride. How can that be instilled into our culture?
I’ll note though that Engineers, Scientists (mostly with Pharmaceuticals) and Computer Science folks are paid quite well, they just don’t have the record that business majors have. I would not be surprised to see a turn in this sometime soon.
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May 14th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Agreed on the WASL.
There are two primary ways to think about the decline/lack of math and science students in the US: cultural and governmental, since the government provides most of the nation’s education. Although I mostly focused on cultural aspects in the article, Chris brings up a key issue in salary options facing students.
I don’t know that six figure salaries are necessary, but certainly the average wages of scientists and mathematicians need to rise. They do just as much off-duty time keeping up with developments in their fields as doctors, for one thing. The question is how to encourage such a thing, if that’s something the government wants to do. It could subsidize industries that require intensive research and development – green industries, for instance, which are up and coming anyway and may increase the demand for mathematicians and scientists.
I think an intriguing option would be for the government to associate these career paths with patriotism. That would draw a certain demographic very strongly and also de-geekify the fields (or at least make being geeky just like apple pie). It’s what they did right after Sputnik. The problem with this approach is that it probably won’t be self-sustaining unless there is a threat to national security. Also it would encourage entering these fields specifically to support the defense industry. While war research does occasionally bear benevolent fruit, generally it just makes more kinds of weapons. Still cultural manipulation is one way to get the ball rolling.
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