We need mathematicians

- of course we do! There was an article in yesterday's paper about the importance of maths and the teaching of maths. It said something about how we all use maths in our every day lives. Yes, that is true too. It may not be much but it is there from paying someone, receiving payment, measuring out a cup of something or looking at the amount of water in the jug before making a cup of tea, putting out utensils to use and much more.

But what the article did not say was anything about language and that bothers me. Without language there could be no maths. If you do not know the words "one" or "two" or "addition" or "putting things together" or many more words besides then how you can understand these things. You need these words (or their equivalent in another language, including sign language) in order to understand the idea of "oneness" or "more" or many other things.  

Learning those words cannot be done in isolation. If I am simply told "one" then it is meaningless unless I experience "one". I need to experience the idea of "one" in many different ways before I can begin to understand "one".  

For me this is where things like nonsense games, nursery rhymes, counting out rituals and much more are so important. It is why stories are so important. It is why reading to and with a child is so important. Why do we think even an interactive computer game can do this? It cannot do it. It cannot do it in the way that an a parent or "responsible" person can do it. An older person alert to a failure to understand can correct and reinforce the idea of "one". What is more many, perhaps most, older people will do it without even being aware that they are actually "teaching" the young learner.

I am no mathematician but I can usually handle the processes needed in everyday life. In the past few weeks moving has meant I have needed to do more than usual. It has been a relief to discover I can still estimate with a good degree of accuracy. It has been an even bigger relief to discover that the bookshelves fitted in as I thought they would.  I measured and I multiplied. I took into account the amount required to accommodate the skirting boards. This was all practical, everyday mathematics. I did it without thinking of it as "maths".

At the other end of my mathematical knowledge I can still do some basic statistics. If faced with some of the more commonly used tests I can read the results. I can understand - and question - the results in a psychological paper or the claims being made in something else like a news report. That is perhaps more "advanced" mathematics but it is still only very low level work when compared with the calculations which send people into space and bring them back again. I am lost when it comes to what children now do in school - even if I believe that the sort of maths I did has more practical applications. It makes me wonder if there needs to be more "practical mathematics" taught.

But none of it can be done without language. Numbers and words need each other.