I could care less whether or not people understand math or not. What pisses me off is the anti-intellectualism inherent in the whole idea that people would be intimidated by having to learn something new. I don't care what it is, if I need to learn it for some reason then I'll put in the sweat-work needed and learn what needs learnin'. I don't care who you are you should be able to pick up any of the basic skills needed in a variety of areas if you put some darn work into it. I've consistently found that hours doing something = getting better at it. Not exactly a big secret (BTW just sitting around and wishing is a good way to NOT accomplish anything).
You're presuming that people "have" to learn it for some reason and don't. Quite frankly, I find that idea absurd. I have not encountered very many accountants who balk at doing addition and subtraction. I don't find very many statisticians going "la la la" when somebody explains how to do standard deviation. Hell, carpenters add and subtract fractions every day, but it's not often they need to calculate the total amount of the payments paid on their truck.
What I see is that sometimes in our daily lives we encounter the "need" to do something out of the ordinary. Math happens to be something that pops up more frequently than others. When I need to make an "Garage Sale" sign to hang on a telephone pole, I do it on the computer because I couldn't draw and color the letters freehand very well. Are you pissed off at me for not spending my evenings with "Drawing Freehand for Dummies" and a sketch pad?
I know I'm different. When I see two numbers, I almost always calculate the difference. If I see the year a movie was made, I automatically calculate how old I was when it came out. If I hear somebody say, "What's 12 times 13?" I just do it in my head even if I'm not asked. When I fill my gas tank, I always look at my trip odometer and calculate my MPG. Yet in my daily life I don't
need to do any of that.
A friend of mine had to take remedial math in college. He was extremely bright. If you engaged him in a debate on politics, world history or current events, he'd smoke you. It was a blow to his ego that even basic math was such a struggle for him. He received plenty of ridicule about it.
Meanwhile, I know some very scientific types and plenty of software developers. They work with all sorts of abstract concepts every single day. If you try to engage them in a debate on some topic - any topic, the words escape them. They can't explain the things they understand.
But nobody seems to get all snooty about it. Artists accept that not everyone can draw. Musicians accept that some people can't even clap to the beat. Writers accept that not everyone can express themselves with words. They all accept that some people believe that even an extensive amount of effort is just not worth the paltry results.
But it seems like the mathematically inclined tend to get snobby with those who prefer to avoid math. Suppose there's a room full of people and somebody says, "If 9 people donated a total of 72 dollars, what was the average donation?" It seems like you'd expect everyone to give the answer.
Well, what if in that same room someone said, "Who would like to come draw a cat's face on the blackboard?" Do you think everyone should volunteer? It's
really easy. In the world of drawing, it's basic addition. Would you look down on anyone who said, "No way. I suck at drawing."
