Living in a numerate world

To succeed in today's ever-changing world, our youth must develop strong literacy and numeracy skills. Literacy has had a strong emphasis over the years but numeracy has not seen the same attention. Numeracy complements literacy and is sometimes called “mathematical literacy.” Both skills are needed in order to function fully in modern life.

There are many definitions of numeracy, but the easiest way to think of it is that mathematics is the basic math we learn in school: adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and so on. Numeracy is taking that basic math and applying it to everyday life. Being numerate means having the confidence and skill to use numbers and mathematical approaches in all aspects of life — at work, at home, as consumers, for household finances, cooking and so on.

Being numerate also refers to the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts and to apply these to solve a variety of problems. Having numeracy skills allows us to not only understand the basic math skills, but also fully understand and explain the solutions to problems and make decisions that are based on logical thinking and reasoning.

The importance of strong numeracy skills cannot be emphasized enough. We use numeracy skills in every aspect of our lives. We use them when: we go shopping, we build anything, go to the bank, plan a vacation, or compare statistics of sports teams. Decisions in life are often based on numerical information. To make the best choices, we need to be numerate.

Instilling numeracy skills in our young people is the role of every teacher and parent, not just the math teacher. Every course has some form of math as part of it. Whether it is: measuring a shot put throw in gym class, placing co-ordinates on a map in social studies, or measuring chemicals as part of chemistry, all of this relates to numeracy and must be emphasized by teachers. Parents play a vital role in the development of numeracy skills by exposing children to different aspects of life that will allow and encourage their child to apply the math skills they learn in school.

Studies suggest that adults who struggle with numeracy are more likely to be unemployed than those who have competency. Given this, it is evident and imperative that we place an emphasis on our children becoming more numerate.

Dave Driscoll is Superintendent of Schools for Palliser Regional Schools.