As a former math major, I have the rep of being the math wiz in the family. I get all the brain teasers, questions, riddles, and mathematical puzzles that arise in my or my wife’s families. Today I spent a fair amount of time talking to my stepdaughter (not a kid, a woman in her 40s!) who is preparing for a math test she will be taking for a job retraining program she is enrolled in.

It was apalling. I cannot imagine how ignorant high school (and even college) graduates are in even the simplest mathematics. I’m not talking algebra or trigonometry, or even plane geometry.
I’m talking arithmetic. And I don’t mean to slam this lady, this is just the latest reminder of a pattern I have seen for years.

Americans who are otherwise intelligent, ariculate people, some of them quite well informed, seem to have never been exposed to sixth grade math. Grown-ups appear to be having trouble with stuff they should have mastered by the time they were 12 years old, skills that must be essential to even the simplest daily activities: making change, measuring cloth, household materials, tools, fluids. Many seem to have difficulty distinguishing between lengths, areas and volumes, much less carrying out any calculations a carpenter or carpet salesman should be able to do.

They do not know the multiplication tables, cannot understand the commutative law of addition, the associative law of multiplication, they have only a tenuous knowledge of either fractions or decimals, but can perform few calculations with either, or convert one to another. Any mathematical operation that can be done with a pocket calculator now seems to be outside human ability, including long division, multiplying or adding columns of figures, or even the concepts of surface areas, volumes and perimeters of geometric figures.

What is wrong? I know a lot of kids today are getting heavy math instruction in school, but i’m talking about the average American. What should be the minimum mathematical achievement level to be considered an minimally educated person? Reducing a fraction? Adding and subtracting or multiplying and dividing decimals and fractions? Figuring out the lowest common denominator? Knowing why someone might WANT to figure out the lowest common denominator?

This is no surprise to me, but today I was shocked by how bad it seems to have gotten. I’m interested in your comments.