We can't always just blame lower wages for off-shoring of American jobs. Worker skills matter, too.

And without much better math education in American schools, expect more and more U.S. jobs to head East, according to this excellent op-ed in today's SF Chron by David Eisenbud of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in, yes, Berkeley.

Eisenbud says hostilities between enemies of liberal "fuzzy math" and opponents of "drill and kill" may be overstated; there's a lot of common ground on how to better math ed.

The "Draft Disarmament Treaty for the Math Wars," from the University of California's New Standards Project, "might help show the way," says Eisenbud. Students should:

add, subtract, multiply and divide integers, decimals and fractions accurately and efficiently without calculators;

understand the mathematics they study and use;

use the mathematics they know to solve problems with calculators and computers;

be fluent with the symbolic language of algebra, and understand how to use the basic laws of algebra when solving mathematics problems; and

explain and justify their claims and critically evaluate the reasoning of others.

The "Draft Disarmament Treaty" also urges that:

All students should have copies of basic instructional materials (textbooks, handouts, etc.) to take home.

Math teachers should continue to learn mathematics throughout their careers.

Spending money on the last two items certainly becomes more palatable when administrators , teachers and parents are united on rigorous outcomes like those suggested above.

The essential lesson applies to other other core subjects, too.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at March 12, 2004 08:33 AM

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