If you follow any vaguely mathematical social media then I’m hoping that National Numeracy Day has already impinged on your consciousness. The team at National Numeracy has been planning at full tilt for some time and has organised a range of engaging activities for May 18th, 2022 – including the Big Number Natter.
Talking about maths and numbers isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. This seems to be a particularly acute phenomenon in the UK. In the pre-Covid era when I visited many international education systems, I was frequently surprised at the high profile of mathematics and numeracy, and the pride with which students described their proficiency in it, or even their love of it. Here in the UK, I often joke that new people I meet at parties very often don’t bother to come back to talk to me when they find out what I do for a living!
These negative attitudes seem to permeate most profiles. The number of girls studying more advanced maths has always been lower than those of boys – and the recent unhelpful comments by the (female) social diversity lead here in the UK have done nothing to engage girls in thinking maths holds appropriate career promise for them – quite the contrary.
So, what’s to be done? Well, it behoves all of us involved in maths and maths education to challenge these attitudes, to be more blatant in our promotion of maths and numeracy as knowledge that everyone can and should have, and, in line with The Big Number Natter, demonstrate that maths is part of our own lives and that we’re happy to natter about numbers with anyone who will listen! Numbers are part of everyone’s life – and they matter.
Take a look at the Number Natter rap from poet Harry Baker, listen to Bobby Seagull interviewing and nattering with the Under Secretary of State for education, listen to Martin Lewis sharing tips for money management, explore the family resources for parents and carers to share with their charges, and discover many more events taking place online on May 18th.
And if you’re reading this later – you missed it – but look out for National Numeracy Day 2023!
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