JOE FOYLE,
Sir, - As policy-makers search for an explanation for the poor Leaving Cert results in maths and related subjects (e.g, physics, chemistry and computer science), they would do well to figure out an answer to this rhetorical question attributed to a Leaving Cert student at my local Muckross Park school: "Why do you need maths in this day and age anyway when we have calculators?"
It is a fair question. Unless all students, from pre-teen years onwards, get a convincing answer, they will study maths half-heartedly and therefore poorly.
The answer is : despite having access to calculators and computers to solve arithmetical and other mathematical problems with ease and speed, during your formative years you should become brilliant at mental arithmetic, because the mental facility you develop for that purpose is the basis of the non-visual (that is, abstract) thinking that is essential for accurate thinking in all areas of life.
In 1971, taking my cue from McLuhan's insights, I published the Switched-Off book of essays in which I forecast that, as we used visual aids such as TV more and more, our capacity for non-visual thinking would tend to decline. I had in mind mainly the adverse results for thinking about philosophy and religion. I have realised since that the effects on mathematics and sciences would also tend to be most adverse.
Although, as with philosophy and religion, some maths data can be visualised, much of it cannot be. Beginning with the invisible points that underpin so much, and continuing with variables that cannot be imagined, much belief in what cannot be visualised is needed to think mathematically.
Youngsters reared on visual aids - TV, PCs, computer games or mobile phone displays - are most uncomfortable thinking in this fashion. They do not realise that sounds are our prime thinking aids.
That is why mental arithmetic skill was, and always will be, the foundation for abstract, non-visual thinking in all areas of knowledge, just as facility with spelling words heard (that is, not seen on pages) is the foundation for proficiency in reading.
Youngsters, and indeed adults, who drill themselves to be proficient at mental arithmetic, and at spelling words heard, gain hugely. - Yours etc.,
JOE FOYLE,
Ranelagh, Dublin 6.