I’m baffled by Simon Jenkins’ insistence that calculators render a proper education in maths unnecessary (My verdict on the ‘woke’ review of England’s school curriculum? It isn’t radical enough, 7 November). Maths is not merely about learning facts and formulas – it teaches children how to solve problems, to identify patterns, to think and express arguments logically, and to interpret data and recognise when they’re being misled. It teaches resilience and the confidence to keep trying when their first attempt at a solution isn’t quite right. These are all important life skills for any young person to develop, and cannot be replaced by calculators. There are many problems with the education system, including with the way maths is taught, but dismissing maths as useless for most people only demonstrates a lack of understanding of what the subject actually involves.
Kayleigh Ward
Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire
• “A teacher tells me that, with calculators, all the maths 99% of school leavers need can be taught to them in a day,” writes Simon Jenkins blithely. Mathematics is the scientific study of numbers, shapes, patterns and quantities, and the relationships between them. It uses logic and abstract reasoning to analyse and understand structures, space, and change (to use just one definition plucked from the web). That is, it is a way of thinking needed to understand anything but the most trivial about the world we inhabit. Pray tell me how you manage that, in a day, on a calculator.
Richard Monteith
Tabernas, Spain
