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Why you should choose math in high school

Ubiquity, Volume 2006 Issue March | BY Espen Andersen 

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Full citation in the ACM Digital Library


[The following article was written for Aftenposten, a large Norwegian newspaper. The article encourages students to choose math as a major subject in high school - not just in preparation for higher education but because having math up to maximum high school level is important in all walks of life. Note: This translation is slightly changed to have meaning outside a Norwegian context.]

Why you should choose math in high school

A recurring problem in most rich societies is that students in general do not take enough math - despite high availability of relatively well-paid jobs in fields that demand math, such as engineering, statistics, teaching and technology. Students see math as hard, boring and irrelevant, and do not respond (at least not sufficiently) to motivational factors such as easier admission to higher education or interesting and important work.

It seems to me we need to be much more direct in our attempts to get students to learn hard sciences in general and math in particular. Hence, addressed to current and future high school students, here are 12 reasons to choose lots of math in high school:

Choose math because it makes you smarter. Math is to learning what endurance and strength training is to sports: the basis that enables you to excel in the specialty of your choice. You cannot become a major sports star without being strong and having good cardiovascular ability. You cannot become a star within your job or excel in your profession unless you can think smart and critically -- and math will help you do that.

Choose math because you will make more money. Winners of American Idol and other "celebrities" may make money, but only a tiny number of people have enough celebrity to make money, and most of them get stale after a few years. Then it is back to school, or to less rewarding careers ("Would you like fries with that?"). If you skip auditions and the sports channels and instead do your homework -- especially math -- you can go on to get an education that will get you a well-paid job. Much more than what pop singers and sports stars make -- perhaps not right away, but certainly if you look at averages and calculate it over a lifetime.

Choose math because you will lose less money. When hordes of idiots throw their money at pyramid schemes, it is partially because they don't know enough math. Specifically, if you know a little bit about statistics and interest calculations, you can look through economic lies and wishful thinking. With some knowledge of hard sciences you will probably feel better, too, because you will avoid spending your money and your hopes on alternative medicine, crystals, magnets and other swindles -- simply because you know they don't work.

Choose math to get an easier time at college and university. Yes, it is hard work to learn math properly while in high school. But when it is time for college or university, you can skip reading pages and pages of boring, over-explaining college texts. Instead, you can look at a chart or a formula, and understand how things relate to each other. Math is a language, shorter and more effective than other languages. If you know math, you can work smarter, not harder.

Choose math because you will live in a global world. In a global world, you will compete for the interesting jobs against people from the whole world -- and the smart kids in Eastern Europe, India and China regard math and other "hard" sciences as a ticket out of poverty and social degradation. Why not do as they do -- get knowledge that makes you viable all over the world, not just in your home country?

Choose math because you will live in a world of constant change. New technology and new ways of doing things change daily life and work more and more. If you have learned math, you can learn how and why things work, and avoid scraping by through your career, supported by Post-It Notes and Help files -- scared to death of accidentally pressing the wrong key and running into something unfamiliar.

Choose math because it doesn't close any doors. If you don't choose math in high school, you close the door to interesting studies and careers. You might not think those options interesting now, but what if you change your mind? Besides, math is most easily learned as a young person, whereas social sciences, history, art and philosophy benefit from a little maturing -- and some math.

Choose math because it is interesting in itself. Too many people - including teachers - will tell you that math is hard and boring. But what do they know? You don't ask your grandmother what kind of game-playing machine you should get, and you don't ask your parents for help in sending a text message. Why ask a teacher -- who perhaps got a C in basic math and still made it through to his or her teaching certificate -- whether math is hard? If you do the work and stick it out, you will find that math is fun, exciting, and intellectually elegant.

Choose math because you will meet it more and more in the future. Math becomes more and more important in all areas of work and scholarship. Future journalists and politicians will talk less and analyze more. Future police officers and military personnel will use more and more complicated technology. Future nurses and teachers will have to relate to numbers and technology every day. Future car mechanics and carpenters will use chip-optimization and stress analysis as much as monkey wrenches and hammers. There will be more math at work, so you will need more math at school.

Choose math so you can get through, not just into college. If you cherry-pick the easy stuff in high school, you might come through with a certificate that makes you eligible for a college education. Having a piece of paper is nice, but don't for a second think this makes you ready for college. You will notice this as soon as you enter college and have to take remedial math programs, with ensuing stress and difficulty, just to have any kind of idea what the professor is talking about.

Choose math because it is creative.* Many think math only has to do with logical deduction and somehow is in opposition to creativity. The truth is that math can be a supremely creative force if only the knowledge is used right, not least as a tool for problem solving during your career. A good knowledge of math in combination with other knowledge makes you more creative than others.

Choose math because it is cool. You have permission to be smart, you have permission to do what your peers do not. Choose math so you don't have to, for the rest of your life, talk about how math is "hard" or "cold". Choose math so you don't have to joke away your inability to do simple calculations or lack of understanding of what you are doing. Besides, math will get you a job in the cool companies, those that need brains.

You don't have to become a mathematician (or an engineer) because you choose math in high school. But it helps to chose math if you want to be smart, think critically, understand how and why things relate to each other, and to argue effectively and convincingly.

Math is a sharp knife for cutting through thorny problems. If you want a sharp knife in your mental tool chest -- choose math!

*This point was added by Jon Holtan, a mathematician who works with the insurance company If.

Source: Ubiquity Volume 7, Issue 11 (March 21, - March 27, 2006) www.acm.org/ubiquity



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COMMENTS

For mathematics calculation check https://calculator-app.com/cross-product-calculator and https://calculator-app.com/matrix-calculator for easy calculation.

��� Aliana Sharma, Mon, 20 Sep 2021 13:02:02 UTC

some of these comments make no since you should re think your words

��� An ominous , Tue, 23 Feb 2021 18:12:58 UTC

this artical is just a opinionated reason. it spits no real hard evidence it's all just an opinon

��� Landon , Tue, 23 Feb 2021 18:10:26 UTC

Math is very important especially in today's world. I read a blog at Excel Mathematics and they were quite right in pointing out that everything is and will be computerized and computer only understand numbers.

��� Vince Taylor, Wed, 04 Mar 2020 10:04:41 UTC

This entire article is based off opinionated reasoning and doesn't state any factual evidence as to why math is important. Sure it can help with college but what good is it if you can't pay for college. I'm pretty sure there is a good amount of people who never went to college and very successful at life. Also comparing math to becoming famous and being an engineer is not a very good comparison. Being famous will evidently earn you more money if you can stay relevant same as being a scientist or engineer, as long as you stay smart you will stay relevant. By the way seems to me that trying to use math as a "more effective and convincing" way to speak isn't helping because the grammar is God awful.

��� Anonymous, Sun, 30 Dec 2018 14:40:26 UTC

First to start off math may get u higher paying jobs and make you sound smarter but to say " Much more than what pop singers and sports stars make -- perhaps not right away, but certainly if you look at averages and calculate it over a lifetime." is certainly can be true but a average salary of a sports play is 1.8 million to 5.5 million and even higher yes I know that engineering can pay high but if in a little amount of time I would rather want to to be notice in the sports industry because in sports you can easier make profits faster instead of spending $36,000 or higher on stupid college degrees when you can get a scholarship for sports and go to a pro level and make a $1.8 million dollar deal to up to 10-30 years.

��� Trent , Fri, 23 Feb 2018 17:27:10 UTC

of course the article was nice but still i hate the bloody maths b'cause its the worstest subject in the world b'cause there is no real use of maths in life only show off is used and to get thehigher jobs what tghe hell tere is maths in life with polynomials algebra bla bla bla

��� lingeshwaran , Fri, 30 Jun 2017 13:33:06 UTC

after reading this article i believe i should focus on maths as it is im very weak at it..On another note could you please make an article fir person weak at maths and how they can better improve their attention at it... thank you

��� Miranda Malone , Fri, 24 Mar 2017 04:14:58 UTC

Reading this article makes no sense not everything in the world will involve math. I think math should be an elective, its simple to know adding subtracting multiplication and division thats all you reqally need to know if you want to become a math teacher then learn math if you want to become a inventory or be a diver then study things that involve math in that subject. We dont need to know the pythagorean theorem when will that help someone who wants to be a doctor it makes no sense.

��� Joey , Wed, 31 Aug 2016 19:09:07 UTC

Very interesting article. Thumbs up

��� Ian Bain, Wed, 31 Aug 2016 18:53:28 UTC

pls can you give your reaction and post in site pls

��� Mr Anoymous, Mon, 23 Nov 2015 09:29:53 UTC

It's baloney. All that most people need is a bit of arithmetic. 90% of people wouldn't use maths from one year to the next. Read more about the world's greatest educational hoax on this link: http://www.johnmiller.com.au/maths/index.html Report back if you can successfully complete each of my year 11 maths exams in three hours. Regards John Miller

��� John Miller, Thu, 19 Nov 2015 10:50:40 UTC

well according to me maths it is an easy subject and i enjoy doing,so ppl lets choose maths and have bright future

��� magnet, Tue, 30 Jun 2015 10:01:03 UTC

MATHEMATICS IS THAT LANGUAGE IN WHICH GOD HAS WRITTEN UNIVERSE

��� charles babbage, Tue, 30 Jun 2015 09:28:08 UTC

Ramovha, you're not really "intelligent" if you can't spell it correctly.

��� Anonymous, Thu, 12 Feb 2015 05:52:25 UTC

I love math very much if you are good at it ,it make more things to be easy...what i can advice you is that chose math as major subject so that you be smart and interligent

��� Ramovha manuel, Sat, 20 Dec 2014 10:49:21 UTC

Whatever subjects you study, give first priority to Maths. If you can study it, rest all subjects are done. How good are you in Maths decides the rest. Great article. Thanks for sharing this.

��� haloking, Tue, 02 Sep 2014 19:19:18 UTC

This article misses the mark for those weak in math. The article cites all kinds of reasons for taking hard math courses in high school--better job, more money, etc. But the number of "good jobs" in math oriented careers has nothing to do with how good or bad an individual is in math. A person has to be interested and exposed to math at a fairly young age to be expected to excel at it--most people aren't. In fact, their parents were probably bad at math. No encouragement there. A person needs to experience success in a subject in order to excel in a subject. Most people don't experience success in math early on--so they don't expect success in math later on. Perfectly reasonable response. Stop forcing math on unsuspecting people. George DeMarse The Sage of Wake Forest

��� George DeMarse, Tue, 09 Jul 2013 01:06:09 UTC

math is a universol language math was ashuly my best subject in high schoo I didnt I if u wont to get better at math try to not use a calculater thates what holdes u backwell learning

��� marc, Fri, 21 Jun 2013 07:58:42 UTC

I took pure maths at high scool and i enjoyed maths even if it was hard.im intending to study applied math at vacity this year and even though i still face my fears about math because it has a lot of abtructs which i enjoy after understanding.thanx for such motivation it keeps me going and hopefully i will join you as part of mathemations

��� obakeng, Tue, 07 May 2013 07:18:41 UTC

math is really amazing. I'm very sure now that I will take secondary educ. math major

��� ..., Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:28:25 UTC

math is ok, i dont like it but i know its necessary and essential.

��� Gracie Robertson, Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:55:23 UTC

I like how the guy that commented saying that Math was "boring" didn't even write the sentence correctly.

��� Kelli, Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:32:29 UTC

After read this I realised I still hate math, high school makes learning math boring.

��� hunter, Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:58:26 UTC

very awesome points i guess... yes i think maths is a very good subject since it leads directly to jobs :P

��� anam, Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:32:35 UTC

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