Math has never been seen as the coolest subject on the block, with math lovers being called geeks, nerds, and worse!
However, there’s no escaping the fact, even amongst the haters, that knowing your 1, 2, 3’s and your X, Y, Z’s is important.
And America agrees!
This week Gallup released the results of a poll which asked,
“Which school subject has been most valuable to you in your life”
The Gallup Work and Education poll showed that Americans Graded Math as the Most Valuable Subject. English Literature came in a valiant 2nd and Math’s cousin, Science came in 3rd.
The exact percentages varied according to gender, income level, educational attainment, and even political leaning, but Math almost came top in all categories, with only postgraduates and women choosing English literature over math (English led math by just 1% amongst women).
Here at Thinkster Math, we’re big fans of math, but also acknowledge that math is often used alongside science, business, and even English in real life. That’s why we include Word Problems in each grade level of the Thinkster problem.
We know that using math in context is the most important skill that we can develop in our students.
So next time you hear someone saying negative things about math, let them know what America thinks!
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This article was written by Caroline Mukisa, an independent blog author who writes at Mathsinsider.com. She will be writing on our Thinkster blog on topics related to math education that we are sure our readers will also enjoy.
