'Rubbish maths' is selling pupils short

Published on Thursday 28 May 2009 22:03

CHILDREN are being taught "rubbish maths" with too much focus on counting and calculation, according to veteran children's presenter Johnny Ball.

Ball, who made his career enthusing youngsters in maths programmes such as Think of a Number, said schooling was too locked into the idea that numeracy is everything.

He said: "Everyone thinks maths is just numbers and being able to count and calculate but maths explains everything – how the world works and science and technology and art and music.

"We spend just too long getting kids to add, subtract, multiply, divide and do percentages."

Last year, the Trends in International Maths and Science Survey report (TIMSS) said Scotland fared far worse than many other western nations.

The 71-year-old presenter is author of a new book, Mathmagicians, which will be published in July and aims to inspire children in the subject. He says other departments in schools should be "maths aware".

Mr Ball added: "In art, if you understand the maths of how to make a drawing look three- dimensional, suddenly you are a much more powerful artist.

"We're teaching rubbish maths. We are going over and over it again, we are asking kids to learn maths, then testing them, then asking them the next year if they remember it and we are not being ambitious enough."

He said the technology around us which uses maths could be inspirational for children.

"Everybody's got satnavs these days, but does anybody know how a satnav works?

"No they don't, and it's terrible. You need Einstein's maths to explain how a satnav works.

"It's ambitious to talk about these things and we need to get kids to say, 'Wow'.

"How do building's stay up and how do we get arches the right mathematical shape so they stay up? It's interesting maths."

Ball said children needed to learn that maths can take them further than their ordinary lives. He added: "We have to teach them that maths can produce scientists, technologists, engineers, physicists, chemists and people who will cure the world of its diseases.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said the new Curriculum for Excellence, due to be brought in next year, would challenge and stimulate children by introducing maths teaching within other subjects.

She said: "Mathematics equips us with many of the skills required for 21st century life.

"Learning across the curriculum will make lessons more relevant so that children and young people will see the value and importance of maths in a wide range of settings."