Brits will flock to Duolingo to dust up on their French but they’re terrified of maths
We love learning French on Duolingo, but we don’t want to learn maths in the UK. But we should, because we would be reaping benefits personally and professionally, writes Phoebe Arslanagic-Wakefield
UK students are some of the most anxious about maths in the world, also scoring highly in their negative perceptions towards the subject, with around a third of students failing to pass their maths GCSE. By Rishi Sunak’s arithmetic, poor numeracy costs our economy so he wants to make it compulsory for teens to study maths, in some form, up until the age of 18.
But the reaction to this policy in some quarters – fair questions regarding how deliverable it is with maths teachers in short supply aside – leaves me wondering if it is not only schoolkids who are in need of an arithmetical attitude adjustment. Actor Simon Pegg took to social media to vent his frustration at the announcement, saying that he had hated maths at school and claiming Sunak wants to create a “f****** drone army of data-entering robots”.
If Pegg remains haunted by his teenage run-ins with geometry, he’s not alone: American research has found that 93 per cent of US adults experience maths anxiety, a negative emotional response to maths, resulting in stress and tension. In a country like the UK, where it is normal to loudly proclaim how much you hate maths, it may be that we are not much better than our American friends, our hearts beginning to pound when we must calculate how best to split a complicated restaurant bill.
There is evidence that those of us who are able to stomach, or perhaps even summon up real enthusiasm for the subject are reaping the benefits. A quick look at Britain’s highest paying university degrees reveals that they are dominated by maths-based subjects, including computing and economics. We also have a shortage of STEM graduates in the UK, degrees which will usually require an A-level in maths.
Beyond the bountiful economic prospects available to number-lovers in this maths-phobic nation, there are good reasons to consider sharpening your skills as an adult.
There is evidence that being trained in maths improves your ability to problem-solve and employ abstract reasoning. A 2021 study even used brain scans to reveal that those who dropped maths after GCSE had lower concentrations of an important neurotransmitter that is connected to brain plasticity, than those who had continued with the subject: the researchers were actually able to spot the scans of students who did or did not continue with maths, based purely on concentrations of this brain chemical.
Abstract reasoning benefits or no, the joy I felt when I secured a good grade in my maths GCSE and dropped the subject forever was very real. Only, that turned out not to be the end of the story.
A decade on, I had instead become increasingly maths-curious. Interested in developing statistical skills, I was intrigued by the relationship between maths and philosophy, and starting to wonder more and more if maths could really have been as horrible as I remembered. A few months ago, I bit the bullet and emailed a maths tutor.
I joined my first Zoom call with Alex the tutor with some apprehension. But a few lessons on, as we negotiate statistics together, the time flies by, even when Alex warns me he is about to sound a “a bit school-teacherish”. Sitting down of an evening to do maths homework may not be what I pictured myself doing in my twenties, but with the zeal of the converted, I want to see more people shed their teenage baggage and give maths another try.
After all, the language learning app Duolingo has been downloaded over 20 million times in the UK. If so many of us brushing up on school favourites like Spanish and French in our spare time, then why not linear algebra? I can promise that you’ll be rewarded with a rush of positive brain chemicals, it’s a chance to exorcise classroom demons, and perhaps make yourself more employable into the bargain.