Ian, thanks for brining up this article!
While I don't fully agree with Mr. Roth's fundamental premise, a couple paragraphs in the middle of his article match my thoughts exactly:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Michael S. Roth
Many seem to think that by narrowing our focus to just science and engineering, we will become more competitive. This is a serious mistake.
Our leaders in government, industry and academia should realize that they don't have to make a choice between the sciences and the rest of the liberal arts. Indeed, the sciences are a vital part of the liberal arts.
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I just graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from a private college that many (including some of the faculty) would consider a liberal arts college. I was also a participant in the Honors program, which replaced the core general education curriculum with a separate set of more intense an in-depth courses, which heavily emphasized English, history, philosophy, and so forth. The one part that wasn't replaced? Math. The honors students still had to take plain old college algebra - except that the majority of us already had credit for it based on our SAT/ACT scores.
Partly in jest and partly serious, I brought up the question during an open forum, "Given that honors engineers have to take six writing and history intensive courses, wouldn't it be appropriate for honors English and history majors to take calculus? [1]"
The response was predictable: "Do you want us to die?"
And that, I believe, is the problem. Math is no longer something any educated person should know; it's a subject that only nerds and "smart people" need to learn. Everyone else avoids it like the plague, to the point that people across the country make jokes about not being good at math. That needs to change.
I've done enough preaching to the choir. Let's carry on changing the culture.
[1] After
hearing Arthur Benjamin, I think maybe the other majors should be required to take statistics instead.