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 inimbita ako ni Pangulong Obama na maging Emperador ng Matematika, meron akong payo para sa kanya na sa tingin ko na magpapahusay nang husto sa edukasyon ng matematika sa bansang ito. At madali lang ito iisagawa at mura pa.
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)
Ang kurikulum ng matematika natin ngayon ay may batayan sa arithmetic at algebra. At lahat ng mga natutunan natin matapos nun ay patungo sa isang paksa. At ang nasa tuktok ng piramide ay ang calculus. At naririto ako para sabihin na yun ang maling tuktok ng piramide ... na ang tamang tuktok – na nararapat alamin ng ating mga mag-aaral, na nararapat alamin ng bawat high school graduate – ay ang estatistika: ang probabilidad at ang 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.
Oo alam ko ngang mahalaga ang calculus. Isa ito sa pinakamagaling na produkto ng utak ng tao. Nakasulat ang mga batas ng kalikasan sa wika ng calculus. At lahat ng estudyante na nag-aaral ng matematika, agham, pag-iinhinyero, ekonomika, ay nangangailangan talagang pag-aralan ang calculus pagsapit ng katapusan ng primer anyo ng kolehiyo. Pero naririto ako para sabihin na, bilang isang propesor ng matematika, konting-konti lang ang mga tao na gumagamit ng calculus sa sadya at makabuluhang pamamaraan, sa kanilang pang-araw-araw na kabuhayan. Sa isang banda, ang estatistika – isang paksa na maaari, at nararapat, gamitin araw-araw. Diba? Ito'y panganib. Ito'y gantimpala. Ito'y sapalaran. Ito'y pag-uunawa ng data.
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 na kung alam ng ating mga mag-aaral – kung alam ng lahat ng mga Amerikano ang probabilidad at estatistika, hindi siguro magulo ang ekonomiya natin ngayon. Hindi lang – salamat – hindi lang yun ... [ngunit] kung tama ang pagturo nito, maaaring maging masaya ito. Ibig sabihin, ang probabilidad at ang estatistika, ay ang matematika ng laro at pagsusugal. Pagsusuri ito ng mga trend. Panghuhula ng kinabukasan. Alam nyo, lumipat na ang mundo sa digital mula sa analog. At panahon na para baguhin ang kurikulum ng matematika natin patungong digital mula sa analog. Mula sa mas klasiko na 'continuous mathematics', patungo sa mas makabago na 'discrete mathematics.' Ang matematika ng walang kasiguraduhan, ng ala-suwerte (randomness), ng data – at yun ang 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 kabuuan, imbis na pag-aralan ng ating mga estudyante ang mga paraan ng calculus, sa tingin ko mas magiging mahalaga kung alam nilang lahat kung ano ang ibig sabihin ng dalawang standard deviations mula sa mean. Maraming salamat po. (Palakpakan)