As we all may have seen on mainstream media, mathematics is portrayed as a difficult, horrible and all-around annoying subject- so we decided to explore the ‘pros and cons’ of maths as well as some opinions from teachers and students here at NES, along with our own general opinions on maths to find out whether it truly deserves its negative stereotype.
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Maths… When it comes to maths, there are two types of people: either you hate it or you love it. Most subjects have ‘an in-between’, but not maths- or so it appears. Yes, “hate” and “love” are strong words, but as our interviews with faculty members and students would later confirm, apparently you “either love or hate maths”.
(Disclaimer: for the most part, the following quotes just focus on the main parts of the interview and are summarised.)
“Important all-around… Just add that to all the maths teachers; they’ll give you the same answer. Without maths, maths teachers won’t have a job.” -Ms. Rushbrook (Maths teacher)
“It’s fantastic and it’s very important.” -Mr. Lucas (Physics teacher)
“I did not enjoy it all because of a horrible teacher… and due to that, every time I think of maths, I think of that teacher.” -Ms. Purville (English teacher)
“I love maths.” -Mr. Meechan (History teacher)
“I don’t like maths because it’s difficult and doesn’t match reality.” -Ms. Manning (Geography teacher)
“I wasn’t good at maths- I found it difficult so I don’t like it; however, I do understand that it is important.” -Ms. Pritchard (Librarian)
“Maths is disgusting.” -Ms. Dixon (English teacher)
“Maths is good because while it was difficult, my maths teacher told me that life problems would be solved faster if I knew maths.” -Ms. Farmer (P.E. teacher)
“Maths is nice.” -Mr. Abd Rabou (Islamics teacher)
“Maths is ew because ew…” -anonymous Year 8 student
“I’m cancelling maths.” -anonymous Year 8 student
“Maths is the backbone of all sciences.” -Fatima Al Mumen
“Maths is good because it’s the lead of society.” -Loulwah 7.2
“Maths is bad… I don’t know why- I just hate it.” -Abigail 7.2
Interviewees who hate maths: 7
Interviewees who love maths: 7
What the interviews showed us:
- Most people (even those who despised maths) admitted that maths is an important subject to learn.
- Most of the people who hated maths described it as “disgusting” and mentioned that they performed poorly in it.
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Pros and cons:
No debate about anything is complete without a pros and cons section. Thankfully, maths is a highly debatable topic with plenty of pros and cons to be noted- here are a few:
Pros:
- We (technically) have maths everywhere around us, from the number of cars on a street to page numbers. ‘What about in nature?’ you ask. Well, bees use hexagons for their honeycombs- or how about the Fibonacci sequence found in pinecones, seashells, trees and some leaves and flowers? Nearly everything ever has maths in it.
- Maths is the core of most subjects (think physics, chemistry, business, accounting and even art, just to name a few).
- It helps you solve life problems (as stated above in the quotes).
As also shown by research, it showed that children who are better at maths are more efficient in using certain brain areas than those pupils who don’t do as well in maths. (the link for that is here)
- It is needed for most jobs as, according to tradeschools.net, 94% of all workers use some sort of math in their jobs. 68% use fractions, decimals, and percentages. More than a third of skilled blue-collar workers such as carpenters and mechanics use basic algebra on the job; 29% use geometry and trigonometry. 5% of all workers use calculus; skilled trades workers, managers and technical professionals use it the most. (https://www.trade-schools.net/articles/jobs-for-math-majors.asp)
Cons:
- Redundant.
- Relatively difficult to many.
- Most aspects of it are useless. You finish learning the things you may need later on in life (the ‘basics’) by year 4 (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division)- and you can do these with a calculator anyway.
- Maths kills creativity due to how objective it is; maths questions have one answer and one answer only.
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Is maths actually important?
Throughout this whole article, mathematics has been described as ‘useful’… but is it actually useful?
When I think of useful maths, only the 4 ‘core basics’ come to mind (addition, multiplication, division and subtraction) and most humans master these topics by the 4th grade anyway and can use calculators to do them. And it has even been argued that these 4 topics aren’t even that useful; for example, when you go to a shop and buy seven 6 pence chocolate bars, the shopkeeper won’t say ‘pay 6×7 pence’ he’ll say ‘pay 42 pence’. Thus, the average customer doesn’t necessarily need to have mastered the art of multiplication. Other than arithmetic, hardly anything else is useful on the daily scale.
Bottom line: Maths should be optional
Should maths be optional?
You don’t know what career you will be going into as an adult when you’re young. No 2nd grader will know if they are going to be an engineer when they grow up- but even if they choose a seemingly non-mathematical path, such as being a nurse, doctor or an astronaut- these too (surprise, surprise!) use maths. Children won’t know if they enjoy something until they try it. Thus, it would not be wise to rule out whole career options and narrow children down simply because of a dislike for a school subject.
As for maths ‘on the daily’, it may be useful- but you might need a separate device to run your calculations, and you don’t quite carry a calculator everywhere. You might argue that you can just use your phone for basic, daily ‘maths situations’ but how about when it runs out of charge? And is it really a sustainable (or even ethical) idea to rely on technology to do the brainwork for you?
Sure enough, a shopkeeper won’t say pay ‘6×7 pence’, however, using maths, you can manage your budget for groceries. You can’t pay 42 pence worth of chocolates when you budget so badly you have nothing for groceries except 3 pence that you thought was enough due to your poor math skills.
Bottom line: Maths shouldn’t be optional
Final words:
Whether you hate or love maths, it’s part of your life- so put it on a plate and eat it.
In the end, maths has a lot of different aspects; if you don’t enjoy division, you can still enjoy line graphs or vice-versa.
So hang in there during maths class, you will find something you enjoy!
