I believe innumeracy (mathematical illiteracy) is a bigger problem than illiteracy (inability to read and comprehend) because our failure to understand and analyze numbers has deeper consequences for the US than mere illiteracy. Without the ability to comprehend math, how do we interpret the different polls and surveys we so often hear about? Beyond that, how do we even know that we must take time to discern what the numbers even mean?
Without understanding math, how do we know whether our scientific calculations are correct? As managers, how do we complete budgets without a clear understanding of the numbers behind the numbers? How do we know how our company is performing?
I would add to this the supposition that most people, even those who are well read, probably know that innumeracy exists but they have no word for it.
Examples of innumeracy abound in our daily lives yet I don’t think anybody gives it much thought. Until now, I could certainly have been included in that group. Here’s how innumeracy manifests itself in my daily life – and this is the short list:
· If I go to a convenience store and the register breaks down, the cashier can’t make change. (Some registers now have pictures or icons instead of numbers.)
· I have no idea how many zeroes constitute one billion.
· I tremble when I have to try to figure out the interest rate on any of my accounts.
· When I shop at one of those big warehouses, I assume I am getting a bargain. Yet when my husband calculates the unit prices we end up putting a lot of things back in favor of others which are truly the bargains.
· The following is an example of probabilities-another term that confuses me: Two of my friends won’t fly because they heard somewhere that a plane crashed or maybe two. Yet statistics show that such fear is irrational. From: Car Accidents.com we can see that:
There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. (NOTE: I chose this site at random but even it has a problem: What exactly is nearly this many accidents? Seems to be this should be a hard number.)The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes.
I don’t have the numbers on air crashes, but I can say with reasonable certainly that there were not even close to 6,420,000 nearly or otherwise. Yet my friends have an irrational fear of flying without really knowing or caring about the reality of the numbers.
When we extrapolate these seemingly minor examples out to encompass the wider world, we can see that innumeracy has far reaching negative consequences:
· Do Lawmakers make policy such as “Welfare to Work” based upon faulty statistics about the working poor?
· Did George W. Bush win the Presidency or not?
· Do the statistics about the incidence of diabetes or cancer among certain populations and whether those populations actually seek care, affect the care that population receives?
· Has the dependence on calculators dummied us down?
· The reports that there are more people of color in prison than non whites implies to many that people of color are a more dangerous lot than other groups. The problem? The report turned out to be untrue and was recanted. (See Below)
· Journalists report to us without even knowing if their numbers make a bit of sense. Before grasping an understanding of the term innumeracy, I would never have thought it would surpass illiteracy as a major problem faced by the United States.
So long as we remain innumerate - failing to understand and ask about the numbers we are fed - our ability to compete worldwide will be forever compromised. And then being able to read and write will be the least of our worries. But that's just me...
Best,
Pamela http://www.ptgriffin.com
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Comments: 35
When confronted, he said his mom told him he did NOT have to learn those dumb multiplication tables because he could afford a calulator. The mom was called in and she affirmed his statement. She also told my friend that she was not modern enough and that she would see her lose her job for being backward. (There were more vulgar words used but they serve no purpose here except to confirm her lack of education and understanding of educational processes.) The principal defended my friend saying she not only was forward-thinking in her teaching but one of the most conscientious teachers he had in his school.
She was not happy with being told that her purchased calculator was not allowed in the classroom so she went to a school board member to complain and to "have" the jobs of my friend and her principal. After a short shouting match between the board member and the mother, he finally told her that (and in words she could easily comprehend) she would keep the %^%$#@ calculator at home and her son would learn as all others did - the old and hard way - she finally accepted defeat at this stage but she probably was affected by innumeracy and feared her child might come up short in the mathematics race. Meaning to do him good, she severely and negatively affected his school educational experience.
I was a numbers-scared student because I had a mathematically advanced father who constantly questioned how he could have such a number-stupid child. Thank goodness I had two brothers who shared his love of numbers - I never made the beloved-child in mathematics award but I was the published playwright and the published poet so I got the words and they got the numbers - I don't feel cheated, I got to succeed in a different area and didn't have to share that child title. lol
OMG Donna.. I can't believe the ignorance of some people. I'd take the word prize over the numbers prize anyday as well. LOL
But the greatest "mathematical" deceit ever perpetrated, is that done on the entire human race, beginning with our very youngest children in the early elementary years of school ... This is the greatest secret ever and the most damaging to our entire society, because it works so well for the leaders at the very top of the hierarchy where the very wealthy continue to take advantage of it by the method of DIVIDE and CONQUER ... !!!
There is another old adage of UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL that also applies across the board ... but how many of us have ever looked deeper into any of those sayings to fathom how it applies to them ???
First off, it would be well to remind each other that for most of our mathematical history, the figure "0" was not used much, if at all, in the worlds math and only upon the acceptance of the use of it was the genius of our modern computer's ability to make high speed calculations using only 1 and 0 put to that use to do so ...
So let us now realize that our most basic and most important numbers of ALL are but ONE and ZERO ...
ONE 'could' stand for the very largest thing to be ever considered, that of the UNITY of our UNIVERSE ... not to mention GOD as the spiritual personality of said universe.
Most of us would consider THAT "1", of such a UNITY, as a very POSITIVE "+" consideration ... unless of course we were in FEAR of either, in which case we might consider them a NEGATIVE "-", as very much undesirable or unwanted, something we might prefer to consider as NOT around at all, thus maybe considering that a NEGATIVE "-", SHOULD preferably become a ZERO, a NOthing, as gone from our reality ...
Now the person of the latter, that lives in FEAR of what others consider as LOVE, we would call very negative, anti social, maybe depressed and even suicidal ... or maybe even a psychopathic killer, maybe with terrorist tendencies even ...
On the other hand, a person that saw the ONE of UNITY, especially being that of our UNIVERSAL GOD of LOVE, would be very POSITIVE "+" in thought, desiring the experience of unity with other like thinkers ...
LOVE is INCLUSIVE and FEAR is EXCLUSIVE ... the ONE is CREATIVE and ZERO is destructive. Representing in the extremes, ALL or NOTHING !
During the time of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, people had a different way of thinking about these things, a much more INclusive way of seeing things. There were many more things to consider around relative importances, a much vaster playing field that had grey area middle grounds of possibility where not everything was rigidly definable and subject to a distinct label. Even their (the Greeks) religious experience allowed a PANTHEON of gods to relate to ...
Then along came Augustine, later a Saint and considered the father of the western religious thought ... that where all of the varied choices of before, became simplified into a distinct DUALITY of only GOOD, as in the DIVINE, and BAD as in EVIL ... cut and dried, black and white, yes and no ... no grey area "fence sitting" allowed, decisions would now be required from each and all ... you were either with us or against us ... religious or secular, subject to the concept of God or Evil (Satan/Devil) ... "+" OR "-" !!!
Ever since that time our children have been taught from day one that (+=+) and/or (-=-).
That is divisive and subtractive thought, that which places a Void or Gap between "+" and "-" that is most often shown symbolically as the "/" in the DUALITY of (+/-) as that being the reduction of (+=+) and (-=-) now "combined" as (+/-).
The main point of this discussion is to show that we are all programed from that teaching to be separate "ego's" in this world, to feel disconnected from everything else, to be rather lonely ... to then seek fulfillment in a unification with others, with fellow humans who are like thinkers that we can be comfortable with, maybe even love each other as in man and wife living in a preferred 'nation', maybe even 'religious', providing that our chosen religion fit our desires and perceived 'needs'.
So then we began to look to Leaders, priests, kings and presidents to get behind in our spiritual and/or secular relationships ... joined into family, then community, then into city followed by nation ... we were together again ... but still the ego knew separation, only settling for the 'next' best of the above.
But across the lands and seas were other similar, yet different, settlements. The greater the distance and differences, the more the likely hood of misunderstanding through ignorance of the ways of others ... consequently they came to be feared as a potential threat to the preferred lifestyle held. Conflicts led to hatreds and that to wars with ensuing destruction to life and property. Such could be seen as being very negative and headed ultimately towards a zero if not stopped.
But the Leaders always stopped the destructions before it was too late, often though one side came off better and was therefore considered the 'best' and a 'winner' ... nobody wanted to be considered a 'loser', so the losers held hopes of eventually success via revenge, hatreds often smouldering to be reignited later. These were NOT really very loving and Godly existences ... and still are not ... all because of what our children are taught from day one.
What they are NOT taught, because it does not fit the concept of the various Leaders ideas of power and control through divide and conquer (control) ... is that GOD exists, and has a SPIRIT which would be symbolized as "=" as in the EQUALITY or EQUALIZER between normal and natural oppositions ... thus the "=" that REPLACES the "/" (Void/Gap) of DUALITY (+/-), TRANSFORMING that into the SPIRITUAL TRINITY of GOD as (+=-) ...
Now you might say (if you even got this far) that (+=-) is NONsense, that it is a PARADOX ... and I would say it is the latter but not the former ... IT IS the BET (the Basic Equation of Truth) that our GOD INspired Universe actually runs on !
That stands for the Spiritual reunification of all oppositions into a cooperating appreciation of natural diversities that when combined with like intentions there becomes a creative SYNERGY where the sum of the total is GREATER than the sum of the parts ...
THIS IS what CREATION is SUPPOSED to be ALL about ... it is a Spiritual REALization of TRUTH ... the truth that would set us each and all free ... free from controlling leaders, both secular and religious who would rather keep us under their own idea of bondage to control us for their own benefit with false promises to us of rewards we are promised by them ... not to mention the FEARs they attempt to instill in each of us to keep us afraid of Self discovery of our own Spirit that Unifies ALL in LOVE.
A bit long ... but it is truly worth the effort it might take to understand what is a very simple and basic truth that could transform your entire view of reality for the very best. The Truth that would set you free !!!
Thanks for sharing your story. Appreciate it very much.
I agree. Thanks.
I hear ya'!
Thanks so much!
Tremendous of you to share your interesting POV. Thanks for taking the time.
TY-sometimes I can get serious lol!
I feel your pain!
I don't use a calculator. I do the math myself, often in my head.
I do notice that when I am with my daughters, they are amazed that I can look at an item they are holding up saying, "It's 49.99 but it says 40% off. How much is that?" And I quickly calculate in my mind that 40% off of 50.00 would be about $20 so the item would be about $30. They can't do it. I try to explain to them the quick process but they've yet to understand it.
Wow! TY for this info.
You go lady!!
No matter how many A's we got in math in school, the calculator made us lazy. But math courses like geometry and trig and calculus imparts a certain logic to the brain that lasts forever.
That's my take. Good reading, Pamela.
I like your perspective here.
TY for sharing this information and for reading my article.