Mathematician numbers don't add up ~ Australia needs Math Professionals

AU.com breaking news ^ | December 14, 2006 11:50am | AAP

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

AUSTRALIA'S ability to win contracts for drug research trials, logistics and other high-tech causes is at risk due to a looming shortage of mathematicians, a new report has warned.

An Australian Academy of Science review released today says underinvestment in maths and statistics is jeopardising the competitiveness of Australian industry and could see Australia become a low-end provider.

[jonesboheim]

Why dont they just get their mathematicians from India like we do?

[68skylark]

I don't know how things work in Australia. But when a newspaper complains about "underinvestment" in the U.S., I start worrying about my wallet, and new proposals for counter-productive government spending.

There are plenty of ways to make schools more effective, and these good ideas are long overdue -- more money usually isn't one of them.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Australia's future looks truly bleak!

I imagine a windswept desert devoid of any life but a few wottle bushes and a single two-lane highway.

Along that highway drive crazed anarchists in search of secreted caches of slide rules and HP41C calculators....

MAD MATH

[VOA]

I don't know how things work in Australia. But when a newspaper complains
about "underinvestment" in the U.S., I start worrying about my
wallet, and new proposals for counter-productive government spending.

You'd be prudent to grip that wallet.

These sorts of "shortage of (fill in the blank) science professionals"
are really just comeons to lure undergrads into fields.
It keeps the universities full of students.
And then when there's a glut in four or so years...oh well, too bad
that industry and the universities will have their pick and leave
the rest of the herd dangling.

[AmishDude]

A very small percentage of mathematicians are Indian.

Now, computer scientists...

[AmishDude]

Academia likes to focus their money on fraud (stem cells) or threats of disaster (global warming). You hear arguments about "applicability" but I usually think that it's that most people just don't understand it. People just fail to understand both the power and universality of mathematics. All real science starts with math.

[Tom D.]

"These sorts of 'shortage of (fill in the blank) science professionals' are really just comeons to lure undergrads into fields. It keeps the universities full of students. And then when there's a glut in four or so years...oh well, too bad that industry and the universities will have their pick and leave the rest of the herd dangling."

I am 52 years old and at least since I was in high school, there has been a shortage of people who can and will do math and science. It's tough stuff and from what I can tell most 18-24 year old college students do not want to do the work (and a good number are too stupid) to take on the heavy lifting of a math or science major. I'm not just talking about today's kids. It was that way 30 years ago too (and I probably fall into both the too lazy and the two stupid camps). I cannot remember anytime during my life when there has been a glut of math majors.

[Jacquerie]

For two years many years ago I worked closely with mathematicians. The creativity of these folks is incredible. They leave so called artists in their dust. The shame is that our public school system has probably snuffed out that creativity in thousands of potentially brilliant kids, to the detriment of our country.

[Jacquerie]

See tag.

[68skylark]

I don't know how it is in Australia, but in the U.S. we have teacher union rules that prevent those with math and science backgrounds from teaching in public schools. (Public school teachers have to major in "education" in college, with a mind-numbing course of study that chases away most people who have intellectual talent and drive.)

Then, when the results aren't good, the teacher unions say we need to pay the (unqualified) teachers more money.

It's an amazing scam on the taxpayer, and one that never fails to work.

[VOA]

I don't know how it is in Australia, but in the U.S. we have teacher
union rules that prevent those with math and science backgrounds from
teaching in public schools.

Yep. I heard an hour on Wiliam Bennett's radio show in which a
string of science majors related how bureaucracy/union rules had
kept them from doing any teaching in public schools.

IIRC, another Freeper on a thread on this topic recalled that
a physics prof at GA Tech that had lectured to overflow classes
for years had volunteered to teach some classes in public schools
gratis.

Yea, he got turned down cold.

[68skylark]

Yeah, he got turned down cold.

I don't think that's an isolated incident. I heard the same thing about a retired President of Purdue University -- someone with a PhD in math -- who was turned away from teaching high school math for being unqualified.

I think lots of very smart people would love to help teach school kids, especially at the high school level.

(Heck, I've got advanced degrees in both math and English and I'd enjoy the challenge of teaching school, even for less money than I could make in other jobs -- but there's no way I'm going to take the "education" courses.)