Sou President Obama my nooi om die volgende Tsar van Wiskunde te wees, sou ek ’n voorstel aan hom maak wat ek dink ’n reuse verbetering sou maak aan wiskunde-opvoeding in die VSA. Dit sou maklik wees om te implementeer, sonder groot onkoste.
Now, if President Obama invited me to be the next Czar of Mathematics, then I would have a suggestion for him that I think would vastly improve the mathematics education in this country. And it would be easy to implement and inexpensive.
Ons bestaande wiskunde-kurrikulum is op rekenkunde en algebra gebaseer. En alles wat ons daarna leer bou op na een vak toe. Die toppunt van die piramiede is differensiasie en integrasie. Ek is hier om te sê dat ek dink dit die verkeerde toppunt vir die piramiede is ... en dat die korrekte piek, wat al ons leerders -- elke hoërskoolleerder -- behoort te verstaan, statistiek behoort te wees: waarskynlikheid en statistiek. (Applous)
The mathematics curriculum that we have is based on a foundation of arithmetic and algebra. And everything we learn after that is building up towards one subject. And at top of that pyramid, it's calculus. And I'm here to say that I think that that is the wrong summit of the pyramid ... that the correct summit -- that all of our students, every high school graduate should know -- should be statistics: probability and statistics. (Applause)
Moet my nie verkeerd verstaan nie. Integrasie-rekenkunde is belangrik. Dis ’n groot prestasie van die menslike intellek. The natuurwette is in die taal van integrasie-rekenkunde geskryf. En elke student wat wiskunde, wetenskap, ingenieurswese of ekonomie studeer behoort beslis integrasie-rekenkunde tydens hulle eerste jaar op universiteit te leer. Maar ek is hier, as ’n wiskundeprofessor, om te sê, dat bitter min mense werklik integrasie-rekenkunde bewus en betekenisvol in hul daaglikse lewens gebruik. Statistiek is egter ’n vak wat jy daagliks kan en behoort te gebruik. Nè? Dis risiko. Dis vergoeding. Dis willekeurigheid. Dis die verstaan van data.
I mean, don't get me wrong. Calculus is an important subject. It's one of the great products of the human mind. The laws of nature are written in the language of calculus. And every student who studies math, science, engineering, economics, they should definitely learn calculus by the end of their freshman year of college. But I'm here to say, as a professor of mathematics, that very few people actually use calculus in a conscious, meaningful way, in their day-to-day lives. On the other hand, statistics -- that's a subject that you could, and should, use on daily basis. Right? It's risk. It's reward. It's randomness. It's understanding data.
Ek dink as ons leerders, as ons hoërskoolleerders -- as alle Amerikaanse burgers -- waarskynlikheid en statistiek geken het, sou ons nie nou in hierdie ekonomiese verknorsing gewees het nie. Nie net -- dankie -- nie net dit nie ... [maar ook] korrek aangebied, kan dit baie pret wees. Ek bedoel, waarskynlikheid en statistiek, dis die wiskunde van speletjies en dobbel. Dis die ontleding van tendense. Dis toekomsvoorspelling. Kyk, die wêreld het verander, van analoog na digitaal. En dis tyd dat ons wiskunde-kurrikulum om te verander, van analoog na digitaal. Van die meer klassieke, aaneenlopende wiskunde, na die meer moderne, spesifieke wiskunde. Die wiskunde van onsekerheid, van willekeurigheid, van data -- dit is waarskynlikheid en statistiek.
I think if our students, if our high school students -- if all of the American citizens -- knew about probability and statistics, we wouldn't be in the economic mess that we're in today. (Laughter) (Applause) Not only -- thank you -- not only that ... but if it's taught properly, it can be a lot of fun. I mean, probability and statistics, it's the mathematics of games and gambling. It's analyzing trends. It's predicting the future. Look, the world has changed from analog to digital. And it's time for our mathematics curriculum to change from analog to digital, from the more classical, continuous mathematics, to the more modern, discrete mathematics -- the mathematics of uncertainty, of randomness, of data -- that being probability and statistics.
Om op te som, instede daarvan dat leerders die tegnieke van integrasie-rekenkunde leer, sou dit veel betekenisvoller wees, as hulle almal sou weet wat twee standaardafwykings van die gemiddeld beteken. En ek sal nie daarvan afwyk nie! Baie dankie. (Applous)
In summary, instead of our students learning about the techniques of calculus, I think it would be far more significant if all of them knew what two standard deviations from the mean means. And I mean it. Thank you very much. (Applause)