Is The Math Myth by Andrew Hacker Worth the Debate?

[houlahound]

on what authority does he argue is he is not even qualified?

sounds like he is tapping into people's math anxiety to sell books.

do not let this man near any public policy switches.

 

[whitsona2]

I get this general thing from students all the time. So, lately, I've been playing Devils advocate-- ok, we will only give math to those who are likely to need it. Let's see, statistically scientists are still most likely to be white males--so let's start there... wow! This is saving us so much time and money already! Awesome!

 

[Mark44]

From @gleem's post, the Keith Devlin article was excellent!

On page 70, he presents a question from an admissions test for selective high schools. A player throws two dice and the same number comes up on both. The question asks the student to choose the probability that the two dice sum to 9 from the list 0, 1/6, 2/9, 1/2, 1/3. Hacker’s problem is that the student is supposed to answer this in 90 seconds.

Apparently (according to Devlin), Hacker's complaint about this problem is the time limitation. However, it shouldn't take someone a full 90 seconds to realize that both dice show the same number, with the sum being 9.

He also apparently argues that Gaussian distributions are not really necessary for actuaries

Gaussian distributions are waaaaaay too hard. Actuaries should learn about normal distrubutions, but what use will they ever make of Gaussians?

 

[pasmith]

From @gleem's post, the Keith Devlin article was excellent!
Apparently (according to Devlin), Hacker's complaint about this problem is the time limitation. However, it shouldn't take someone a full 90 seconds to realize that both dice show the same number, with the sum being 9.

Even if one missed the parity shortcut, it shouldn't take 90 seconds to exhaustively list the four ways in which two six-sided dice can sum to 9 and note that none of them is a double.

 

[ShayanJ]

Even if one missed the parity shortcut, it shouldn't take 90 seconds to exhaustively list the four ways in which two six-sided dice can sum to 9 and note that none of them is a double.

Well, maybe Hacker does find a double!