Mathematical Literacy
A Beginner’s perspective.
After doing 12 years of math in school, somehow I still feel incompetent about math. I don’t think I have what it takes to call myself “mathematically literate”. Now while many others before and after me have and will take a certain pride or show certain ignorance towards the phrase (mathematical literacy), but as a science student, more importantly as a computer science student, I feel I must learn all the math that is the building block of nature.
Math offers precision that we need to build stuff. To do anything that should stand the test of science, you need math. India has a crazy curriculum that portrays math like the mother in-law that you’re not fond of, but you can’t get rid of at the same time. Sadly, there is no changing this system, that has its roots embedded in an orthodox society which thinks that engineering and medicine are the only “doable” careers. Although the society has improved, I wish I could say the same thing about the perception for math in people’s heads. Its like a flu shot that people want to just close their eyes tight and wait for it to be over. No one actually understands how and why math is important and why we should encourage mathematical literacy rather than consider it a taboo.
I have lost plenty an opportunities because of my poor math skills. The way math was taught to me in school made learning science and math off-putting for me. Those who understood the concepts made it look like math was only meant for a chosen few who had a good memory and enough money in their parents pockets to go for those funny “quick math” and “speed math” classes. I never understood the point with formulae and why people just put constants and fixed variables here and there in equations. It was pointless. There was a low point in my school life where I had to literally memorize the equation visually and “draw” it in the test paper. It was sad really. The more I scored low, the more teachers ignored me as a student, considering that I had no hope. Instead they just focused on the straight A students, who were their only hope to uplifting the schools name.
The Mathematical Journey.
It is when I heard a few lectures from someone who really cared about learning math as a new subject, like a new language, instead of just bombarding students with equations and procedural problem solving. I was never allowed to ask the “why” question in math class in school, because apparently it was a waste of time for those who wanted to just get on with the syllabus. So I turned to books and online videos instead. I once found a tutor who really made the concepts of functions and trigonometry clear to me, which is when I really felt that math was something that I may have the potential to figure out, as all it required was a gritty mindset to stick to the problem and not quit. This is where school smothered my confidence. My teachers would strictly instruct us to keep away from the difficult problems in the examination, as it would be time consuming, and not “worth” the points they carried. Instead we were told just to memorize a few problems and do those instead. This was a hard blow for me, as I was bad at memorizing things by-heart. I would sit there , in the exam hall , perplexed by the problems, trying to solve my way through, while the “special” children would just breeze through the paper, like it was a comic book. My gritty mindset and curious problem solving efforts were useless as even if I had the answer right, it
“ the working was never according to the examination standards”
meaning, “we go by the book johnny, no matter how intelligent you might be”.
Years later after all the wrestling i did in high school with math books and exam papers, I landed in college, still confused as to how I should define this on and off relationship with lady mathematics. Others said she was beautiful, and she was the key to unravelling all secrets of the universe. But I was the only one who was stupid enough to not see it.
College is where I thought of expanding my knowledge, and going into the roots of all math concepts, like a detective or an analyst trying to find the root cause of things. “Why did Euler come up with this number?”; Why are constants constant and why do sequences converge? I searched research paper after research paper, connecting the dots and finding meaning in all that was taught in class. I would succeed, but lo and behold, college professors would demand the same old shenanigan that my school teachers wanted me to perform: Memorization.
Don’t use your brain. Memorize the derivation, it is worth ten points. You’ll pass.
The “Youll pass” attitude never will leave the education system. People are happy with just “bare minimum” to just “get by” when it comes to math. No one wants to know what truth math has to offer. It felt like a dead end.
Today I don’t really know if this is my modesty speaking, but after all the problems I have solved and all the papers and textbooks that I have (tried to) read, I still feel unconfident about mathematical literacy.
Everything has math in it. Math is beautiful. It really is. But math tests you. Every step of the way. You are going to fail. You are going to be miserable. You are going to feel like shit when you don’t get that one problem right. You will feel envious towards those chinese kids who have their tiger moms sit on their heads and get them into MIT. But all the envy and jealousy has no use. In the end, only good old grit comes to the rescue. If you are curious enough to learn, you can crack any math exam. It’s just a matter of time and practice.
So what I did was, take out all my text books and theory books, and start solving problems. Solve coding problems online, in order to get a good grip of all the techniques used in the scientific community. Setting aside an hour or two for math is something I was longing to do for a long time, and I am finally doing it. It is really helpful. It gives your brain that edge. And math is the only subject that exposes the truth behind every why. If you need more motivation to start math, here it is:
