Loving Math?

According to Jo Boaler, author of What’s Math Got to Do With It?, far too many students in America hate math and for many it is source of anxiety and fear. In a recent international assessment of mathematics performance conducted in forty countries across the world, the U.S. ranked a lowly twenty-eight. When the level of spending in education was taken into account, the U.S. sank to the bottom of the forty countries.

Interest in mathematics is declining. For example, at Stanford University, the average number of math majors over the past ten years was sixteen out of approximately 1,470 students each year. Across the United States the number of mathematics majors at four-year colleges dropped by 19 percent over the same period of time.

Nonresident aliens received approximately 44 percent of all master’s degrees and 35 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in engineering, mathematics, and information science in the United States.

Tomorrow, I will share Jo Boaler’s tips on giving our children the “best mathematical start”.