WHY LEARN MATH & COMPUTER SCIENCE?
The average middle school student has enough mathematics knowledge to survive in the modern world. There is no direct need for algebra for the overwhelming majority of jobs currently in the US. The word problems that fill student's algebra texts have no real-world analog or application.
Calculus is even less necessary. Less than half of practicing engineers use Calculus day to day.
However, and this is a big "however," lack of practice in logical disciplines will leave students unable to function in computer science and any of the other hard sciences. More than anything, this explains why there are 10x and 20x+ differences in programmer productivity. You can train the syntax, mechanics, and algorithms of programming any time, but the logical foundations were built long before then in math class and early computer explorations.
And all the sciences are based at a fundamental level on using math to describe their world. Mathematics builds the model, and numerical and statistical methods especially on the computer, model and solve it.
These science, engineering, and computer occupations fill the top of the pay, demand, and satisfaction scales.
Now we know those aerospace guys are math geeks. Freshman aerodynamics.
Wait, we had a nice equation going, why are we putting little discrete dots all over that airfoil?
A huge matrix. I smell a computer nearby.
The Boeing 777 arrived in 1995, having been entirely designed on the computer.
I'll just take geology and study about crystals.
Sophomore geology class: Modeling large scale earth processes.
But we want to become biologists or go into medicine.
No computers or math needed there.
Right?
All major recent advances in biology have been propelled by computation.
We have gone from discovery of DNA's structure (1953) to sequencing (2000) to $1000 sequence (2013) in a single lifetime.
Protein folding is our next frontier.
JOBS
US News – 100 Best Jobs 2014
This is an artificial and partially subjective comparison,
but illustrative nonetheless.
Ranked by
● 10-Year Growth Volume (10 percent)
● 10-Year Growth Percentage (10 percent)
● Median Salary (30 percent)
● Job Prospects (20 percent)
● Employment Rate (20 percent)
● Stress Level (5 percent)
● Work-Life Balance (5 percent)
#1 - Software Developer
#2 - Computer Systems Analyst
#9 - Web Developer
#11 - Information security
#12 - Database administrator
#18 - Civil Engineer
#19 - Mechanical Engineer
#24 - IT Manager
#30 - Computer Programmer
Out of the top 33, all the rest except 1 were medical jobs!
WHAT ABOUT THE COMMON CORE?
Constructivist education theory has resulted in less rigorous mathematics programs across the US and elsewhere.
Common core is a step in the right direction, but it is very important to realize that common core is not intended to be a college preparatory curriculum. And teaching to the minimum common core standards will find students woefully underprepared for the nation's exclusive universities. Teachers find their entire day filled basically teaching an extended SAT course.
There is no computer science content in the Common Core!
Most schools are lucky to offer an AP Computer Science, taught in Java. It is rare to find any work involving electrical engineering, software engineering, or embedded programming in high school.
Gifted and talented programs have been dropped across the nation, as No Child Left Behind has provided financial incentives to drop GATE programs in favor of struggling students.
IS MY CHILD GIFTED IN MATH?
NO!
I'll tell you my story, which no one ever believes. But I think all of us at MIT and elsewhere harbored a variation on this same secret.
When I was kindergarten, we tended to go on long vacation trips all over southeast. 2 (and later 3) bored kids in a hot car is enoughto drive anyone crazy, so my mom would give simple math problems first involving addition, then double digit addition with carryingand later subtraction and borrowing. Pages and pages of them to keep us quiet. And the only thing more amusing for a 5 year old than annoying your brother is showing off how smart you are.
By the time I hit first grade, everyone in class and at school called me the math genius. I long ago gave up insisting that I wasn't.
That first grade year, I didn't understand place value or any such conceptual niceties, but I could calculate like mad. Why do we borrow that 1? "Not sure, please let me finish this page." Wow, I was getting 100% on every test. My buddy and I are presumptuous enough to write A++ 100% Super Good at the top of our work before turning it in. They skipped me into the 2nd grade class for math.
Now I'm getting rock-star attention. The cool kids are asking me for math help. Needless to say, when you're treated like a star, you're driven to fullfill that expectation with a few glaring Ferrari-crashing Justin-Bieber like exceptions.
A few years later, and a pushy mom that liked fighting against the school administration, I'm taking BC Calculus in 8th grade. Everyone assumes it was because I'm asian, but my mom was Caucasian, and never really helped me with math other than those inital problem sheets, so it definitely wasn't a tiger mom thing.
But I know the secret. No genetics (my dad is a chaplain, mom a homemaker, grandparents had some tinkering skills, but that's it). Definitely not working harder at it given how lazy I am, just focusing more in the time I did spend in math, a little math team, a slight leg up in 1st grade, and... great expectations.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Forcing a child to take math has a limited payoff. They might do it to please you, but that only goes so far. They might do it to avoid your anger, but that is even worse.
Success in math and the hard sciences comes from having the desire yourself to learn. And that desire comes out when one truly believes that one is capable of learning anything. When a student believes they are a "math person" or "computer person."
We believe that the best way forward is always practicing small steps until one feels confident and has mastery. When it is something you're scared of, progressive desensitivation works wonders. Math is something you wrap your head around in little stages.
We believe that learning how to think is a skill you pick up by problem solving. No, not word problems, but in-depth deep problems after one has mastered the mechanics and algorithms of the simple problems. You need the "recipe-book mathematics" to lay the groundwork for solving much harder problems. You need a level of comfort with math. Reversing these 2 (a fundamental tenet of the constructivist educators) is a mistake.
We believe lifelong learning is the key to success. We calculus geeks called it "high first derivative." Some people start out ahead, but never learn. A flat or gently sloping line. Others start much lower, but have passed the others by making a habit of continual learning.
GENIUS, SUCCESS, AND ALL THAT
We don't believe in tracking. Tracking tells a student that they're NOT a math person.
We do believe in allowing kids to progress at their own pace. I had 7 classes of independent/guided study of math between 5th and 11th grades that worked wonders. The best computer class I had was being allowed to sneak out of study hall and help the one teacher that had a doctorate in computers in her lab.
Do something in the right direction over and over.
Genius is a process, not a destination or gift.
Successful people "fail" a lot. Providing a supportive environment for learning that might not result in the intended results, sets a student up to try again and again.
TOOLS
Math and computer programming are tools, the best we have for dealing with real world problems.
These form the basis of real Engineering and Science, solving problems, not memorizing factoids and filling in blanks on a test.
Early facility with these are critical for anyone college bound for such a career.