Widely covered on this snowy (at least for London and SE England Whizzers) Monday, is the story of Carol Vorderman’s appointment to a Conservative party panel to tackle UK maths education (and address the parlous state many claim it to be in).
Carol will take an unpaid role at the head of the Tory taskforce, with the remit of helping “break the cycle of fear of mathsâ€. As we know well, take away the fear of maths, and the number paralysis that comes with it, and you remove one of the major obstacles to numeracy.
Many of our parents claim that the single finest thing our maths tutoring has done for their students is improve confidence. No student will remember everything he or she is taught, but what stays with them is a general attitude towards maths, and an appreciation that even the most complex maths problems can be broken down into easier parts. Too many adults claim they are no good at maths because they simply didn’t enjoy it at school, rather than because they are actually no good.
Vorderman has claimed that the last ten years has seen 3.5 million children leave school without basic maths qualifications, and despite recent good news about England’s placing in international league tables, there is clearly a lot more to be done. We hope Ms Vorderman finds time to recommend Maths-Whizz.
It’s just a thought….
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