The math myth : and other STEM delusions

210 Pages·2016·12.14 MB·English

by  Hacker

THE MATH MYTH
Also by Andrew Hacker
Higher Education? (with Claudia Dreifus)
Mismatch: The Growing Gulf Between Women and Men
Money: Who Has How Much and Why
Two Nations: Black & White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal
The End of the American Era
Political Theory: Philosophy, Ideology, Science

For Robert B. Silvers and the Memory of Barbara Epstein
CONTENTS
1. The “M” in STEM
2. A Harsh and Senseless Hurdle
3. Will Plumbers Need Polynomials?
4. Does Your Dermatologist Use Calculus?
5. Gender Gaps
6. Does Mathematics Enhance Our Minds?
7. The Mandarins
8. The Common Core: One Size for All
9. Discipline Versus Discovery
10. Teaching, Tracking, Testing
11. How Not to Treat Statistics
12. Numeracy 101
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
THE MATH MYTH
1
The “M” in STEM
This century finds America in a struggle to preserve its pride and prestige.
Almost daily, evidence accrues that the United States lacks the resources to reign
over world affairs. Even minor countries feel free to display their disdain. The
years 1900 through 2000 were recognized as America’s century. In its first half,
we led the world in manufacturing and living standards. In the second, we
surpassed in education and military might. But the era ahead holds no
comparable promise. Other countries are already matching us in ability,
efficiency, and vigor.
For example, we are warned:
• In less than fifteen years, China has moved from 14th place to
second place in published research articles.
• General Electric now has most of its R&D personnel outside the
United States.
• Only four of the top ten companies receiving United States patents
last year were firms based in this country.
• The United States ranks 27th among developed nations in the
proportion of undergraduate degrees in science or engineering.
Hence the search for solutions to arrest incipient decline. Piled on my desk
are reports from august committees and commissions bearing titles like The
Gathering Storm, Before It’s Too Late, and Tough Choices or Tough Times. All
call for national revival and renewal. It’s revealing that we hear no worries that
the United States may lag in literature or the arts, or that no concern is voiced
over declining enrollments in philosophy and anthropology. Rather, the focus is
on the now well-known acronym STEM, symbolizing competences the coming
century will ostensibly require. We must, we are counseled, devote more of our
minds, careers, and resources to science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics.
Even a decade ago, the Business Roundtable was urging that we “double the
number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics graduates with
bachelor’s degrees by 2015.” We’ve passed that year, but awards in those fields
have barely budged. More recently, a panel appointed by President Barack
Obama asked for another ten-year effort, this time to add “one million additional
college graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics.” Where the missile race tallied nuclear warheads, now the
countdown is STEM diplomas.
THE SOLUTION: AZIMUTHS AND ASYMPTOTES
Indeed, mathematics is the linchpin, heralded as the key to the other three. Thus
we’re told that if our nation is to stay competitive, on a given morning all four
million of our fifteen-year-olds will be studying azimuths and asymptotes. Then,
to graduate from high school, they will face tests on radical notations and
elliptical equations. All candidates for bachelor’s degrees will confront similar
hurdles. Mathematics, we are told, will armor our workforce in a merciless
world. Its skills, we hear, are foundational to innovation and a lever in the
international arena. In an age of high-tech weaponry, azimuths can turn the tide
more than human battalions.
On these critical fronts, our young people are no match for their agemates
across the globe, with American mathematics scores lagging behind even
Estonia’s and Slovenia’s. A Harvard study calculates that if this shortfall
persists, our gross domestic product will drop by 36 percent. The American
Diploma Project reports that proficiency in algebra will be needed in 62 percent
of new jobs in the decades ahead. We are further warned that there’s already a
shortage of graduates with STEM skills. As a result, vital work is being sent
abroad, or credentialed immigrants are enlisted to fill the vacancies. If coming
generations want a quality of life they feel is their due, they must be prepared to
master what many find the most difficult of all disciplines.
Back in 1841, a Scotsman named Charles Mackay (it’s his spelling)
published a book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of
Crowds. He showed how hoaxes, frauds, and hallucinations come in varied
guises, from stalking witches to marching off to wars. In more sophisticated
times, delusions must show a surface plausibility if they are to ensnare an
ostensibly educated populace.
Among our era’s delusions are the powers ascribed to mathematics, spurred
by a desperate faith in skills abbreviated by the STEM acronym. Together, they
have animated a major mythology of our time. Like all myths, they start with a
modicum of truth and can be beguiling on first reading. In the chapters ahead, I
will show why these beliefs, even when sincerely held, are wholly or largely
wrong, lacking in factual support, and usually based on wishful logic. More
consequential, these illusions and delusions are already taking a heavy toll on
this country, most markedly on the humane spirit that has made America
exciting and unique.
FEARED AND REVERED
The Math Myth began nearly twenty years ago, when I started making notes,
conducting interviews, and collating files. For much of the time, it had an
intermittent schedule, competing with other projects. This changed in 2012,
when editors at the New York Times heard about what I was up to and asked me
to write an opinion article on mathematics. Responses poured in, at close to
record levels, which told me it was time to finish the book. So I did, and here it
is.
I mention the early beginning because even with the passage of years much
of the terrain remains unchanged. Interviews conducted at the outset remain fully
relevant today, as are facts and figures I amassed. If anything, myths about
mathematics—the central subject of this book—have become more entrenched.
This is why I believe that The Math Myth is needed. This country has problems.
But more mathematics isn’t one of the solutions.
Other books of mine have ranged broadly, from race and wealth to corporate
power and the gulf between the sexes. I’ve also sojourned in philosophy, writing
on titans like Plato, Hegel, and Rousseau. So why now mathematics? My answer
is that I’ve found it an absorbing example of how a society can cling to policies
and practices that serve no rational purpose. They persist because they become
embedded, usually bolstered by those who benefit. Nor are the issues entirely
academic. Making mathematics a barrier ends up suppressing opportunities,
stifling creativity, and denying society a wealth of varied talents.
Although I have taught in a department of mathematics at a respected
college, strictly speaking, I’m not a mathematician, in that I have no degrees in
the discipline. Still, I can admit to being a social scientist, which has always had
a quantitative side. I also have a fair reputation for being agile with numbers. But