March 05, 2018 Monday
Bedtime Story
Why was Mathematics made Compulsory in Schools?
The question that I was raising last night
was that why mathematics is so forcefully taught and pushed down the throats or
rather the minds of every child of every nation?
Why is mathematics given so much importance
in spite of the fact that most average ape children find it repulsive and can
make no sense of either probabilities or logarithmic tables?
Why is it that javelin throwing is not made
part of mandatory training in high schools so that it may help a child survive
in wilderness if left alone and lost and help him attain his meal?
Mathematics is not sexy but swimming is and
yet swimming hardly forms part of our national curriculums (except for in
expensive schools meant for the kids of elite and wealthy) but mathematics is
never left out?
You have to keep in mind that this was not
always so and if you were to go back a few centuries in a time machine, say to
the year 1750 of Ottoman Empire or Mughal Empire who were at par or even
superior to Europeans then, and look at the kids who did bother to go to school
you surely would never find them taking special classes or crash courses to
know the different theorems of Euclid’s geometry or to be able to solve linear
and quadratic equations of what is now considered as elementary algebra.
What happened between that time and say early
twentieth century that suddenly mathematics, the most dry and repulsive of all
the subjects, suddenly gained such an eminent position in school curriculums?
Well, mathematics coupled with physical
sciences changed everything!
Mathematics along with physics almost
singlehandedly changed the course of human destiny as it gave the human ape
incredible power over nature and for better or for worse, made them undisputed
champions of the planet.
Harari reminds us that none of the books
that is considered by their followers to be both sacred and complete such as
Bible, Torah, Quran and Bhagwad Gita contain a single mathematical equation.
And yet today, even the followers of these
books realize that there is more power in one equation of mathematics than in
the entire text of all these holy books combined; after all no one doubts the
power of two primitive atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
on August 6 and 9, 1945 that forced the mighty Empire of Japan to fall on its
knees and brought the end of the bloody World War II.
So even if you dislike mathematics and find
it impossible to digest the differential equations, you are forced to study
mathematics and compelled to know the works of men like Jacob Bernoulli, no
matter how superficially, because now even politicians and army generals
realize that if they need to run a powerful nation with stable political
boundaries, their citizens have to be taught science and most of all,
mathematics.
They do so even if scientific teaching and
knowledge directly goes against the most fundamental tenants of their
traditions and religions; Even totalitarian Islamic states such as Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia, Republic of Sudan and liberal countries such as India with their
own medieval, self-applauded, self-certified, self-pontificated “Vedic sciences”
are forced to educate their populace with modern science and mathematics.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is Professor
Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the International
Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I recommend
this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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