Math skills essential in trades careers

Re: “Our schools are failing our children,” column, Sept 2. It was interesting to read the experience of Tara Houle’s daughter’s math class in Japan, as it echoed the most recent survey that Japan ranked first in the world in math-education results.

I worked for the carpenters’ union for 36 years and saw a steady decline in the math skills of applicants. I developed a simple 10-question math quiz on the back of the application form and witnessed the horror that it bought to the faces of the applicants. One of the largest construction owners in Victoria would typically ask all new job-seekers: “What does seven times nine equal?” Most resorted to counting their fingers. Ask your 18-year-old if you think I am exaggerating.

Learning times tables was considered old-fashioned, making multiplication and division nearly impossible without a calculator, but even with one, most could not understand the concepts.

We didn’t use the math quiz to exclude applicants, but more to demonstrate to them whether their math skills were weak or strong. We would tell them that when they attended technical training at Camosun to learn framing, forming, stairs, roofs, tools and safety, they would drown if they also needed to learn basic math, so they should consider taking math upgrading before attending their apprenticeship training.

Teaching students to memorize times tables to 12 might seem a little boring, but if you don’t know your times tables, you can’t do math, probably even with a calculator. Wayne Cox Saanichton