Maths is too geeky, according to a UK research council study reported in the Education Guardian .
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) study showed:
…that students think of mathematicians as old, white, middle-class men who are obsessed with their subject, lack social skills and have no personal life outside maths.
You might be tempted to wonder if this report comes from the university Department for Stating the Bleeding Obvious, but it’s worth pausing for a second and thinking hard about where such attitudes come from, and what effects they have.
(Danica McKellar, full-time actress, part-time published mathematician, author of ‘Math Doesn’t Suck’ (trans: ‘Maths Isn’t That Bad, Honestly’), and - if the ESRC study is anything to go by - the exception that proves the rule)
The Guardian article goes on to say:
Students’ views of maths itself included narrow and inaccurate images that are often limited to numbers and basic arithmetic and are largely based on a negative portrayal of the subject in popular culture, the research found.
What was interesting is the ‘geek’ qualities become more positively expressed and attributed amongst A-level or university mathematicians, who talk about commitment, devotion, and skill, rather than madness and awkwardness. Even so, many apparently go to great lengths to claim they are ‘normal’.
The researchers pin the blame for these perceptions on popular culture, and the lack of positive and varied representations of mathematicians and maths. This report comes in the wake of figures that show declining uptake of maths courses.
Government and business sectors are worried, naturally, about how they are going to find bright economists, clever engineers, motivated statistics experts. Even bookmakers are probably scared, because their work requires an in-depth understanding of that bugbear of many an otherwise well-educated adult - probability.
But is this a problem? For many years now we have had the image of the leather-elbow-patched maths teacher who drums into us learning we weren’t really sure we needed in a way that fails to light up our imaginations. Of course, this image is more often false than not, but the stereotype remains, and it sows the seed of the belief that maths is not relevant, interesting, or useful.
When we start to believe these old saws we convince ourselves there’s no point either learning maths or wanting to learn maths. At the minimum, we should know that maths is as often important to getting on in the world as literacy - try choosing discount item in the shop, opening a savings account, working out your payslip, planning a long journey or checking your change without some basic mental arithmetic and you’ll rapidly be ripped off, defrauded, disorganised, and lost.
But beyond that, we should want to know why number patterns and relationships exist and what they mean for everything that we take for granted in this world (and many things we don’t); from the reasons why Chartres Cathedral is beautiful, to how your mobile phone company works out your position by triangulation.
If we can remind ourselves not only that the likes of Danica McKellar and Natalie Portman love maths, but that there’s good reason why they like it, we’ll be on the road to solving the crises in maths classes and HR departments, and we’ll banish those stereotypes once and for all. In our humble opinions, Portman and McKellar aren’t attractive actresses with a gimmick, they are people with a love of knowledge first, and actresses, second.