[acoustics]

You've made me realize that I probably have a subconscious bias against science and engineering.

My view of the ideal math curriculum is very humanistic, focusing on the broad civic and intellectual value of formal reasoning, statistical fluency, etc. I never liked the in-the-weeds numerical stuff you get in science and engineering, but it's what the world is built on.

[jerf]

Despite my personal STEM focus I'd lean into that. I'm more interested in teaching mathematical modes of thought and some forms of mathematical intuition. I suspect grinding on symbolic computations is intrinsically necessary for that, but at the same time, I don't think it's sufficient, and that's what's missing from our curriculum right now. As evidenced by the people who come out of high school with all sorts of symbolic manipulation ability and still effectively no mathematical intuition or thought patterns to speak of. Then the symbolic manipulation abilities, unsupported by intuition or thought patterns, simply fade away with minimal impact on the person's life.

[lordnacho]

For me, the big takeaway that everyone cannot leave high school without is statistical critical thinking.

When you come across a meme with a graph, what should you say about it?

To me, that kind of thing comes before the stuff we think of as math. Calculus, matrices, geometry, all that stuff. People can learn those things if they are interested.

If they are bamboozled by bad statistics, society is finished.