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.
Ngayon, kung si Pangulong Obama ay aanyayahin ako na maging susunod na Tsar ng Matematika, meron akong suhestiyon sa kanya na sa palagay ko ay magpapayabong sa sistema ng edukasyon ng matematika sa bansang ito. Madali lang itong isakatuparan at hindi gagastos ng malaki.
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)
Sa ngayon, ang kurikulum ng matematika ay batay sa aritmetika at algebra. At lahat ng mga napagaralan natin ay bilang paghahanda sa iisang asignatura. Nasa tuktok ng tatsulok na ito ang calculus. At nandito ako upang sabihin na mali ang pinili nating tugatog ng piramide ... na ang tunay na rurok -- na dapat alam ng bawat mag-aaral, ng lahat ng gagradweyt ng haiskul -- ay estatistika: mga paksang kalagmitan (probabilidad) at estatistika. (Palakpakan)
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.
'Wag niyo sanang masamain. Mahalaga ang calculus. Isa ito sa mga pinakamahusay na inimbento ng tao. Naiintindihan natin ang kalikasan gamit ang calculus. At bawat mag-aaral ng sipnayan, agham, inhinyeriya, ekonomika, dapat alam ang calculus pagkatapos ng unang taon sa kolehiyo. Ngunit andito upang sabihin na, bilang isang propesor ng matematika, iilang tao lang ang gumagamit ng calculus sa bawat araw, sa makabuluhan at kusang mga bagay. Sa kabilang banda, ang estatistika -- isang asignatura na maaari, at marapat, gamitin araw-araw. Tama? Ito'y pagtukoy sa panganib, sa gantimpala, sa walang kasiguraduhan. Ito'y tungkol sa pag-intindi ng datos.
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.
Sa tingin ko, kung sana bawat mag-aaral sa haiskul -- kung sana lahat ng mga taga-Amerika -- alam ang probabilidad at estatistika, hindi siguro magkakagulo ang ekonomiya natin ngayon. Hindi lang -- salamat -- hindi lang 'yon ... [pero] kung wasto ang paraan ng pagtuturo nito, maaaring maging kasiya-siya ito. Kung tutuusin, ang probabilidad at estatistika, ay ang lengwahe ng paglalaro at pagsusugal. Tungkol ito sa pag-arok ng mga nagaganap at ng hinaharap. Nagbago na ang mundo mula analog patungong digital. Panahon na upang palitan natin ang kurikulum ng matematika sa digital mula sa analog. Mula sa makalumang 'continuous mathematics', tungo sa makabagong 'discrete mathematics.' Ang sipnayan ng walang katiyakan ng mga datos -- 'yon bilang pag-aaral ng probabilidad at estatistika.
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)
Sa paglalagom, sa halip na nagsasanay ang mga estudyante ng calculus, tingin ko'y mas mainam kung kabisado nila ang ibig sabihin ng "two standard deviations from the mean". Seryoso ako. Maraming salamat po. (Palakpakan)