{"id":305,"date":"2015-03-05T21:03:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T20:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hilarymoriarty.com\/blog\/?p=305"},"modified":"2015-03-05T21:03:05","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T20:03:05","slug":"can-everyone-do-maths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/?p=305","title":{"rendered":"Can everyone 'do' maths?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The government wants everyone to do maths \u2013 but has not stopped to think if everyone can.
\n
\nIn the great debate about too many students choosing arts subjects over mathematics at A level, very few people seem to be acknowledging the unpopular truth that some people can\u2019t do maths.
\nObviously, I don\u2019t mean, \u201cat all\u201d!
\nFor a civilised, sophisticated society in a post-industrial highly technological age, it is surely perfectly reasonable to expect all students at 16 to pass GCSE exams in maths and at least one science. I don\u2019t even believe the exams at that stage are that difficult, and I do believe that really good teaching between the ages of five and 16 can probably make a difference to a student\u2019s chances of achieving a grade of C or above. This much we should expect.
\nBut the pass rates in maths GCSE are disappointing: provisional figures for 2014 (Student Performance Analysis, GCSE grades) show 62.4 per cent of candidates attaining A* to C.
\nMind you, I can talk: the pass rate in English \u2013 for most candidates their own language, getting a fair amount of use one way or another \u2013 was 61.7 per cent.
\nAnd I do believe the pass rate in both, fundamental subjects, should be higher. Every citizen should be able to attain this level of proficiency in these building blocks of our 21st century society.
\nBut I have always thought that maths more than most subjects is something of a tall building, with the top floors reserved for the top mathematicians. The rest of us bale out at various floors, indicating the level at which we ceased to enjoy it, ceased to need it, or quite simply ceased to be able to do it at all. Mathematics firmly stratifies all-comers, at some stage, into those who can and those who can\u2019t.
\nPoints of exit are interesting. My own was GCE, which I passed with the help of a good memory and prayer, and in defiance of the head of maths: \u201cYou girls won\u2019t know the answer to this \u2013 Peter Hughes, have you got it yet?\u201d
\nI had tried to escape at the end of year 9: the head personally retrieved me from my cookery option, returning me to maths: \u201cWithout a GCE in maths, you cannot go to university, not even to study English!\u201d Teacher Training College had no such restrictions.
\nAs head of 6th form, I met students, confident with a GCSE A, finding that by Christmas of the lower 6th, they had reached their exit level of A level maths. \u201cI can\u2019t do it! I don\u2019t even know what they\u2019re talking about! And I thought I was good at maths!\u201d
\nSolution? Get out while you can still manage another subject, where hard work could make up a missed term.
\nThe top floor of the maths superstructure is probably reserved for Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking, but it seems as if the government wants everyone to do maths because it is a good thing to do, rather than because they are able to do it.
\nAnd they believe that better teachers will make it possible for everyone.
\nI don\u2019t believe it. And, politically incorrect as it may be to say it, I do believe that some people can\u2019t do maths beyond GCSE. Indeed, 40 per cent of the school-going population apparently cannot even do that.
\nSaying we should be able to do it is like telling a short heavy-weight lifter that he should be a high jumper. Maybe he should \u2013 maybe it would be exhilarating, he\u2019d earn a fortune and save the world. But some people can\u2019t do high jump. And some people can\u2019t do maths.
\nBut some can: in 2014, the A* to C pass rate for additional maths at GCSE was a whacking 93.5 per cent, of which 53 per cent were A* or A grades.
\nExplanation? Maybe the only candidates who even entered this extra exam \u2013 fewer than 4,000, as opposed to more than 736,000 maths candidates \u2013 were the ones who could do maths.
\nSimples.
\nOh, and here\u2019s a question: why do we not have enough
\nA level scientists when the pass rates at GCSE suggest everyone can do science: the A* to C pass rates in biology, chemistry and physics respectively in 2014 were 90.3, 90.7 and 91.3 per cent.
\nAnswers on a postcard please…\b
\nArticle originally appeared at http:\/\/www.sec-ed.co.uk\/blog\/can-everyone-do-maths#sthash.jklArTE8.dpuf <\/a>on 26 February 2015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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