The Math(s) Fix: An Education Blueprint for the AI Age

The Math(s) Fix is a comprehensive densely informational book on the reformation and updating of mathematics education and teaching methods. Due out 10th June 2020 from Wolfram, it's 320 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

Many educational teaching methods haven't changed a whole lot in hundreds of years. Outdated methods are slowly being replaced but change has been slow and often ineffective. Currently mathematics classes are being stripped to the bare minimum due to funding cuts as well as a lack of qualified and engaged teachers. The author makes the statement that without intervention, it wil become: "a backwater for a few afficianados, and drop out of the mainstream - a bit like the demise of Latin in UK or European schools". 

Mathematics and logical reasoning skills are absolutely critical to our continued survival as a species. A basic understanding of math concepts is necessary for most other academic pursuits as well as teaching thinking patterns which provide tools for problem solving.  As with most pursuits, having the proper tools available can mean the difference between success and failure. 

Our past modality for teaching mathematics has proven inadequate for our current educational needs. The author makes a very good point for utilizing the tools available, including powerful computer assisted processing power, to structure mathematics education to reach more students and actually *teach* them, helping them build and own the problem solving tools instead of just using cookie-cutter tests to "cram - test - forget". 

This is an intellectually dense textbook, written by an academic from an academic family. It's full of formal academic language and isn't an "easy" (read lazy) book to read. It's rigorous and demanding. He follows the premise in the introduction: define - abstract - compute - interpret, as a formula for the rest of the book. 

At the end of the day, though it's somewhat oversimplified (and much more elegantly said in the 320 pages of the book) no teaching reform (however well meaning) has really taken into account the fact that computers exist. This book changes that. 

For American readers, much of the spelling and language utilize the British standard spellings, so things like "maths", "utilise", "specialise", etc are chosen consequently. It shouldn't prove any difficulty in context. 

We need a better way to teach mathematics. We need more people who understand mathematics to become engineers, physicists, scientists, and problem solvers. Wolfram has a lot of interesting ideas on that subject.

Five stars (readers should keep in mind that the subject requires some effort). I would enthusiastically recommend people in education or policy to expend the necessary effort.

 Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.