George Rebane
America’s numeracy has been covered in these pages since RR launched. As technology accelerates in these pre-Singularity years, our innumeracy has become more of a critical factor in how we govern ourselves and our general quality of life that depends on our ability to create wealth. For example, it’s almost impossible for the innumerate among us to understand the axiomatic human behaviors that make the failures of collectivism hard to understand (e.g. the widespread acceptance of neo-Marxism). A recent article that expands on all this is ‘I wish Americans would Stop Saying they are not Good at Math’. The table below is from that article.
According to the OECD-PISA website [1]: Mathematical performance, for PISA, measures the mathematical literacy of a 15 year-old to formulate, employ and interpret mathematics in a variety of contexts to describe, predict and explain phenomena, recognising the role that mathematics plays in the world. The mean score is the measure. A mathematically literate student recognises the role that mathematics plays in the world in order to make well-founded judgments and decisions needed by constructive, engaged and reflective citizens. [1]
rebanesruminations.com 
Leave a comment