Sunday, January 26, 2014

Demystify math with the financial pages

Demystify math with the financial pages Application reifies and exemplifies theory, in anything, especially in math. Kids use their fingers to figure, until grown-ups slap their hands, insisting that they figure in their heads. Kids intuitively reify numbers. Without application, theory remains an abstraction to many that is lost. In public school mathematics, the financial pages of the daily newspaper could serve as a cheap "application-heaven" for students studying fractions, percentages, statistics, stocks and bonds, exponents, charts, graphs, even monetary policy. That this cheap and simple solution is not now being applied is a choice made by someone to promote public ignorance over public knowledge; and to divert public inquiry away from finances, money, and its real-life and life-altering application! So, defy them! Teach financial literacy. Learn and teach: fractions, percentages, compounding, amortization, dividends, treasury and municipal bond coupons, and "derivatives." While you are at it, learn and teach about the federal reserve, that secret private cabal, which controls our nation's public monetary supply. That's application that is real; which puts flesh and bones upon mystery mathematics you do not yet get!