Re: [MATHEDCC] What Math Do I Need?

John M. Flanigan (johnf@HAWAII.EDU)
Sat, 29 Aug 1998 21:29:07 -1000

I'm always somewhat more than a little concerned that even educators seem
sometimes to behave as though the purpose of education is merely to
produce employees. Math is needed for students to become educated persons!
Society requires that sufficiently many citizens be able to read a
newspaper knowledgably, vote with some understanding of issues, etc. How
can anyone argue that some students don't need math just because their
proposed occupation does not specifically require it?

John M. Flanigan <johnf@hawaii.edu> The equation is the final arbiter.
Assistant Professor --Werner Heisenberg
Kapi'olani Community College The scoreboard is the final arbiter.
Honolulu, Hawaii --Bill Walton

On Sat, 29 Aug 1998, Phil Mahler wrote:

> Ask Marilyn
> By Marilyn vos Savant
> Parade Magazine, Sunday, August 30, 1998
>
> What jobs are available, it any, that do not require any high school math?
> -Barbara Zbikowski, Port Washington, Wis.
>
> I often encounter questions to which I feel strongly that I know the answer,
> but in order to make sure that I give you facts (if that's what you want)
> instead of opinion, I back up my answer with an authority. This is one of
> those times.
>
> I was confident that many jobs don't require high school math, but I didn't
> want to be, accused of wishful thinking, so we consulted the Bureau of Labor
> Statistics. Jon Sargent, an economist at the Office of Employment
> Projections, confirmed that a large number of jobs - perhaps even the
> majority - don't require high school math (like algebra, for example). But
> most do require elementary math, meaning arithmetic. Only manual labor jobs
> require no math at all.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> FYI
> Philip Mahler
> Middlesex CC
> Bedford, MA
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