Truck and Barter: Rational Ignorance

August 17, 2004

Rational Ignorance

By Bob

Picking up on some of the recent discussions concerning education, I would like to offer up one of my pet peeves about the subject. The Orange County Register reports that students, in the place for which the paper named, did well on the new test needed to graduate. However, right in the middle of the article, it qoutes a student saying something which drives me up the wall:

"You're probably not going to be using ... something like geometry for the rest of your life," he said. "Common sense, that's what you're going to use the rest of your life. So make it simple, and make sure the teachers are doing their jobs."

Excuse me, how the hell does he know what he'll need for the rest of his life? I have heard this a lot from high school students. "My older sister says that you don't need X in the real world." Well, do you want to be a stripper like your sister who flies off to Vegas every weekend? Perhaps a few weeks ago I should have posed the question "don't you wish you studied a little harder back in school?" to the woman, in said town, at the end of her career of "dancing" while she was lamenting going to cosmetology school.

Few people in high school actually know what employment they'll pursue later on in life. I always thought I would go into politics or government up until my last semester in college. I wound up in finance where all that math from an early academic stint as a computer science major paid off. Many of the people I worked with lacked any math ability and it showed.

The problem lies in the fact that students have the view that geometry and calculus takes a lot work, yet, they don't see the rewards that competence in the math and science fields gives, hence, rational ignorance. I have no problem with students going into vocational school rather than calculus, but most students don't go into this training. By allowing students to avoid challenging subject matter, their later careers are limited.

Posted at August 17, 2004 06:20 PM

Comments

Indeed, the answer to the question "What's math good for?" is "Earning a much better living".

Comment by Kevin Brancato at August 17, 2004 09:06 PM | Permalink

It is true, for most people... solved a quadratic equation lately? Determined if any triangles are congruent? Inverted any matrices? Found any limits? I know I haven't. I knew the most math I ever did at age 20, and it's been all downhill since then. But it is also true that generally you don't know what's good for you - or what you will later like - at an early age, so don't lock anything out too soon.

Comment by Lugo at August 17, 2004 11:33 PM | Permalink

Last week, I solved a quadratic, inverted a matrix, and found a pretty nasty limit... but I'm a bad example of what happens to people who find fun in the challenge of math.

Comment by Kevin Brancato at August 18, 2004 08:48 AM | Permalink

Meanwhile, I spent my week finding outliers in log-normal distributions, making correlation matrices, doing options valuations, and, oh yes, probabilities for what amount to extensive form games. (And I thought that stuff would never come in handy...)

And I don't even "like" math. (That is, I don't like doing math for math's sake. I like the things that require math: econ, stats, physics, etc.)

But to expand what Kevin said, econ-o-phile websites probably aren't the best place to find folks who don't deal regularly with this stuff. Or at least like to whenever possible.

Comment by Ian at August 18, 2004 09:10 AM | Permalink

If I were confronted with such aggresive ignorance from a teenager, here is what I would say (after smacking the S*** out of him):

"Listen up pond scum. Besides the fact that you have to learn geometry BECAUSE WE TELL YOU TO, your puny brain is a muscle. If you use a muscle, it will get bigger, stronger, faster. If you don't use it, it will get even punnier, and may disappear altogether."

The ability to do math, especially the more advanced varieties, is a sign of intelligence. If you are not able to do math (not if you aren't able to do it easily, but if you really just cannot do it) then chances are that either you haven't tried hard enough, or you just aren't very smart.

The funny thing about teenagers is that they think that they are smarter than adults. Telling them that the ability to do math is a sign of intelligence would certainly be a great motivator for many of them.

Comment by Eric Krieg at August 18, 2004 10:36 AM | Permalink

Is anyone surprised America is slipping behind in science?
this and creationism area all it'll take until we practive voodoo (oh sorry, I mean good ol' fashion christianity) and all end up living like amish people.

Comment by James Jones at August 18, 2004 09:23 PM | Permalink