[BITList] Fwd: Numeracy Campaign: What we can learn from China -Telegraph

[HUGH]

Mike,

I've read it through, and maths is mentioned all through, but I can't get a 
notion of what they mean.  Numeracy is not mathematics, it's merely a tool 
that can be useful in some branches of mathematics, but is not needed in 
others.  The "maths" taught in schools, age 5 to 12, is all about 
manipulating numbers - it's geared up to accountancy or working in a 
bookie's.  Nowadays it's up to the 10 times multiplication tables, whereas 
in my day it was 12, and in my Dad's it was 15.  Long division, 
factorisation, fractions and lowest common denominator, etc - all with 
numbers, and all by rote. None of this came from China. If they would stop 
bloody reinventing the wheel in different shapes they might come to realise 
the old familiar circular one, while possibly a trifle old-fashioned, works 
best.

Hugh.