Group items tagged

“I’m interested in seeing what design principles nature uses,” Dr. Lalvani said. “Math, perhaps; maybe physics, whatever. The whole D’Arcy Thompson-type stuff.” The biologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s book “On Growth and Form,” published in the early 20th century, was a seminal work on the subject of patterns in nature. Thompson, a Scotsman, argued that growth and the structures that resulted were governed by physical principles and could often be described in mathematical terms. He saw examples throughout nature — in the spiral shell of a nautilus, the branching veins on an insect wing and the scales of a pine cone, to name just a few.

Nor is it clear that the math we learn in the classroom has any relation to the quantitative reasoning we need on the job. John P. Smith III, an educational psychologist at Michigan State University who has studied math education, has found that “mathematical reasoning in workplaces differs markedly from the algorithms taught in school.”

It’s not hard to understand why Caltech and M.I.T. want everyone to be proficient in mathematics. But it’s not easy to see why potential poets and philosophers face a lofty mathematics bar. Demanding algebra across the board actually skews a student body, not necessarily for the better.

Instead of investing so much of our academic energy in a subject that blocks further attainment for much of our population, I propose that we start thinking about alternatives. Thus mathematics teachers at every level could create exciting courses in what I call “citizen statistics.”