Unnecessary maths brouhaha

By Paul H. Williams

I have two grade fours in mathematics, and I am not ashamed. Actually, I surprised myself. I was expecting grade fives. And I did not look back. I was more than happy to rid my brain of all those unnecessary problems that I knew at the time would have been of absolutely no use to me.

I wanted to be a lawyer, or a teacher, or a journalist, and a singer. As such, I did not see where maths would have significantly contributed to my career goals. Now, I have no regrets.

I am an educator, and a writer. I dabbled in the legal field for five years, and I am still aspiring to be a jazz singer, even at my age. I just need to get my left leg stop shaking when I am singing.

I can add, subtract, multiply, divide, measure, and work out percentages, and that is it! Quadratic equations and all those other 'nonsense', as I call them, were created to perplex my equilibrium, and I am not going to put up with them. So, I am still ignoring them.

OLD NEWS, REALLY

This has brought me to the current brouhaha over Jamaica's disastrous mathematics performance at Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). As if it were the first time. It's news from more than 25 years ago! And in all of this, there are two factors that are absent from the equation - students' lack of interest in the subject, and the general nature of the content of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) mathematics syllabus itself.

There are many students, at all levels, who are not for a moment interested in the subject. They only do it because it's compulsory. Yes, the basics are very important and must be taught interestingly. Students must be told why they are important, and scenarios created to get them to understand.

This is where the teacher training comes in. Basic maths teachers must not only know maths, but they must know how to teach it. The problems on the board and in the books must not seem abstract and foreign; they must come alive. And even so, there are students, such as I was, who are not interested in maths, any at all, and, as such, they ignore it, as I did.

When you send students like these to CXC, what do you get? A higher failure rate! Students who have no interest in maths, and who don't study it, must not do maths exams. The answer is already worked out. Don't add them to the list of candidates. Do we need rock scientists to figure this out? The nothing-beats-a-trial-but-a-failure argument I embrace not.

And speaking of rocket scientists, I have come to the point of the general nature of the content of CSEC maths syllabus, and that was where CXC and the Jamaican Gov't lost me. Students are not taught maths that is relevant to their personal, academic and professional interests.

There is no way a student who wants to become a dancer, DJ, woodworker, hairdresser, businessman or woman, or writer should be taught the same type of maths as the one that is taught to a student who wants to be a nuclear physicist, an actuary, a bomb expert, or an astronaut. And employers who are asking transport courtesy officers (drivers), horticultural engineers (gardeners), domestic managers (helpers) and exotic dancers for CSEC maths must desist from that practice.

A DICHOTOMY

There has to be a dichotomy in the approach to teaching the subject. Teach maths that is going to inform students professionally. Let them do separate and equally recognised exams. This might pique their interest. Moreover, there are students who have so-called 'maths brains' and those who don't. The formula can't be the same for all.

And the argument that difficult mathematical problems are necessary to help stimulate the brain, I still don't buy. There are many other ways to develop their cerebral power, like putting together a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and trying to figure out why some of those who are in Parliament are actually there. No. That's a non-brainer. Let's stick to the jigsaw puzzle.

Paul H. Williams is a freelance journalist. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and bludums@yahoo.com.