How Important is Math Anway?

This is the question not even the state of Minnesota seems to be able to answer correctly. It seems state educators felt the math exam juniors had to pass to graduate was too difficult. The solution? How about we have them not take it.

In a country that seems to lag behind others in the world in terms of math proficiency, this seems to be sending the wrong message to our students. The test itself did not even need to be passed to graduate. As long as you were up to par in all other areas of academia, you could fail the math test three times and then be allowed to graduate.

The world economy is currently shrinking while our population continues to increase rapidly. What this means is our students will face even more competition for jobs. Not only will they face competition from people within our own country but people throughout the world. Math is a subject based on building blocks. If students can't pass a basic proficiency test after the 11th grade, how do they expect to make it through college and have the necessary math skills to compete in the global economy.

Very few of us have our careers mapped out in high school. At the time, we may see no need for math or any other subject at the time. However, math is not just important in the work force, we use it every day. Understanding math may have helped some people who are currently in trouble with mortgage problems. I want to build a deck for my house, math helps me figure out how much materials I need. Math helps us understand how interest compounds on credit cards, hopefully before we are in credit card debt. In the grocery store, math helps us understand which size cereal box is the best value for our money. While these are simple examples, I feel they are relevant to us understanding how important math is.

In conclusion, putting this test off is sending the wrong message to our students. We should be challenging teachers to come up with better methods for teaching math to their students. We should be challenging students to score higher on math exams. If we don't push ourselves to find out how good we can become at something, we will never know. By the way, how hard is this exam? Find out here!