I looked up the original note (in Notices of the AMS 2005 Feb) that had this, because I found it so horrifying.
You got me interested in reading it too and I was glad I did. Here's the link if anyone else is interested and I pulled out some other interesting parts:
http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdfHowever, the most common answer
(by far) I definitely did not plant; it came as
a total surprise to me. It was, �Teach mathematics
better to all American children. The way it is now,
if children don�t learn mathematics at home, they
don�t learn it at all, so any ethnic group that is underrepresented
in mathematics will remain so until
children are taught mathematics better in elementary
school.�
How much are our social problems due to our
not challenging children enough? Life can be boring
if you just tread water intellectually. How much
do humans need intellectual challenge? How much
would providing an excellent mathematics education
for our elementary school teachers help mitigate
our drug and crime problems?
This change
of understanding on the part of decision-makers
and the public will not be easy, especially since
many harbor deep math anxiety due to their own
poor education and are threatened by the thought
that others might learn it easily�and/or are reluctant
to �inflict� on innocent children the �burden�
of learning mathematics well.
