The article contains some valuable insights.  I’ve tutored a number of students in “advanced” upper school math, who shortly dropped out of the course realizing their gaping algebra void could not be filled in time to catch up. Not to mention the necessary pre-algebra numerical fluency .

If one can’t grasp elementary algebra and its antecedent skills, it is impossible to understand things like mortgage finance.  Which may be why “don’t pay till 2012” or “24 easy payments” or “only 279 per month lease rate” are so attractive to folk.  And why there are more visa cards than Canadians.  And so on.

I am afraid that quantitative literacy will be replacing the math courses for students who are not very good at math. In fact what I have read, in the U.S. quantitative literacy courses will be the replacement for all students, except for the students who are good at math, and taking calculus and trig will become a very exclusive club at the high school level.

“Statistical literacy, quantitative literacy, numeracy—Under the hood, it is what do we want people to be able to do: Read tables and graphs and understand English statements that have numbers in them. That’s a good start,” said Milo Schield, a professor of statistics at Augsburg College and a vice president of the National Numeracy Network.

Shield was dismayed to find that, in a survey of his new students, 44 percent could not read a simple 100 percent row table and about a quarter could not accurately interpret a scatter plot of adult heights and weights.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/x-equals-why/2009/02/what_is_quantitative_literacy.html

In the New York Post article, “All this worry, however, is based on the assumption that there is a single established body of mathematical skills that everyone needs to know to be prepared for 21st-century careers. This assumption is wrong. The truth is that different sets of math skills are useful for different careers, and our math education should be changed to reflect this fact.”

Very snooty, forgetting trades, and other careers that do not require a degree at the university level, also need a grounding in algebra, trig and calculus.

Note the organizations that are pushing it including text book publishers, and the next link is a sample of problems.

http://deoracle.org/online-pedagogy/teaching-strategies/hallmark-guides-quantitative-literacy.html

“Graduates will be able to effectively interpret, apply, analyze, synthesize, and communicate quantitative information and ideas.

Graduates will be able to:

1.Demonstrate understanding of basic quantitative and mathematical principles.
2.Interpret quantitative information and ideas.
3.Communicate quantitative information effectively.”

My feelings that the powers to be will not admit the fuzzy math curriculum is really bad for students to the public, and decided to create another type of math called quantitative literacy, and than sell it to the public. Another con job, but it would make a lot of sense to people, to understand data that is everywhere, including interest, mortgages and other day to day numbers. But still, people are going to need a solid grounding in arithmetic, the same stuff in order to understand, as well as to know if the numbers are correct, and the resulting graph is correct or plans are correct.

I think it should be a require course to be taken by all students, but should never replace the typical math courses of algebra, geometry, trig and calculus.I forgot to include business math, which is coming back in some schools. Also I have articles to respond to the NY Post article, from various fields asking the question,why are high school students not able to do fractions, understand exponents, and so forth. In one article, and others like it, points out, ” Certainly, at least up to a point, traditional mathematics education is critical.  And just because the idea of quantitative literacy sounds appealing doesn’t mean that implementing a new quantitative literacy curriculum would have the desired effect on our nation’s mathematics performance.”
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/finding-the-next-einstein/201108/is-how-fix-our-math-education

from today’s NP - math is tougher than reading.
http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/09/09/math-is-tougher-than-reading-study-finds/

“One of the things they learned was that children need a more complex set of skills to master math than reading. These skills include the ability to process language, identify quantities and pay attention to the task. Children with attention deficit disorder, for example, often have difficulty with math. “It’s more complicated than reading,” says LeFevre.”

More complicated than reading eh?  Quite the opposite mantra that I said to my youngest, and my other children, math is easier on the brain than the writing of a story. Math there is laws to follow, procedures that are not at all complicated, but instruction of math can make arithmetic very complicated. The fuzzy math instruction and curriculum has made arithmetic to a lot of children hard work, and will be even harder work, if math concepts are taught through literacy. Current math curriculum is already heavily laced with language, to the point where it now takes 25 pages to describe a math concept, that should really take no more than two pages.

I wonder what this professor would say about my youngest who was adding and subtracting (in cookies and things that matter to her), and by grade 1 could no longer add or subtract her cookies and other things. Keeping in mind of her dyslexia, I cannot blame the dyslexia, but the instruction of the fuzzy math, that regards math laws and procedures far less important, than the creative ability of the student to explain in words and pictures.

“Not good at math”; books for students.

Like it.  It has a certain ‘fearful symmetry”  (Wm Blake).

Aim at nothing, and you are sure to hit it.

Nobody up there even has the grace to blush when they say these sorts of things.