Statistics

Arthur Benjamin recently gave a TED talk about changing the focus of math education. The short version is that he thinks the focus should be on getting kids to a solid understanding of statistics instead of getting them ready for calculus. This is something I agree with completely.

I’ve often said that the best thing we could do for this country is to teach everyone statistics. Most American citizens seem to have no idea about relative risks and benefits of different proposed policies and are easily swayed by anecdotes and emotions. Nicholas Kristof had an interesting column in the NYTimes recently about this.

The High School has a really good looking AP statistics course. I hope the kids get a chance to fit it in to their schedules.

Here’s an unrelated (but entertaining) article on math education.