The Importance of Data Science in High School Education

When I saw this question in my inbox, my immediate reaction was that the best thing I got out of the mathematics I took in school was logical thinking and showing my work - things that were considered sort of side benefits when I was in the classes.

Having now read the article, I really agree that this would be beneficial. A basic understanding of statistics would have been way more useful than two years of calculus at that point in my life.

I love my all of my applied, pure and statistical math training (regardless of not being good at any of them)

• Pure Math - taught me the incredible fantasy land that is matrices and that "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy" -  this threw me into the probabilities of stats and computer modeling of visual processing.
• Applied Math - I really understood that you could describe anything you can think of if you have the right equation. There is no way that I'd understand a true sales velocity curve without differential calc
• Statistics - psychology was my gateway drug to stats.  Once you understand stats you'll question every piece of bogus evidence that comes your way.  It's intellectual freedom!

Heath Wilder if both.  How do you divide the available time?  What choice do students have?  When I studied math(s), specific classes were prescribed.  

So I'm going to start with some critiques of Deer Marcel.  Word of warning I get pretty harsh ...

• In a recent survey of 900 ‘Freakonomics’ podcast fans  -  oh come on.  This sample set would never get past a peer review panel if you had written it in crayon for your kindergarten craft group
• over the last two years, 90% of the data created on the planet has been generated - It hasn't been generated, only gathered.
• less than 12% of participants used trigonometry, calculus, and algebra in their daily lives - I daresay that's a lot more than in ancient Bablylon and Greece where it was invented but I assume that we've surpassed the need for 3000 years of fundamental problem solving.  I guess Pythagoras was focused to heavily on inventing the solid state rocket booster

Ok now to be less snarky.  We should definitely focus on real world applications.  Statistics is a new kid on the block math wise and our usage of its usage in the contemporary context uses an increasingly wide array of tools.  But algebra, Calc and geometry are ways of problem solving and are tools in your belt.  You can't say that you can program in R and all of a sudden you are Srinivasa Ramanujan without any basic understanding of the concept of mathematics.  

Even better!  Even the incredibly gifted elite that are the Freakonomics podcast fans are using the skills that they were taught in high school math as the cross-applied skills of problem solving and application of abstract concepts.  Just because I learnt to read the cat in the hat doesn't mean that was the only book I will ever be able to read.

I'm not about to develop a mathematics syllabus for all children but I will say that Data Science (IMHO) is the application of geometry, calculus and algebra not the lord of 'new' maths.  I 100% agree with you both that kids should study the application of Data Science and learn to be critical of all statistics that is foist upon them.  But without mathematical fundamentals to lean on what are you teaching them?

Aaaand scene

I absolutely agree that we need both. Even though I don't *use* math in my everyday world my understanding of concepts learned in those courses has definitely set me up for success. I do think that learning some real-world applications would have been beneficial. I think about all of the formulas that we create for programming languages and even Analytics and realize that I wouldn't necessarily understand them if I didn't have the foundations that algebra taught me. All that to say YES BOTH - maybe we could start algebra a little earlier in education to allow for an additional year where you learn to apply everything in a Data Science course!

I absolutely agree that we need both. Even though I don't *use* math in my everyday world my understanding of concepts learned in those courses has definitely set me up for success. I do think that learning some real-world applications would have been beneficial. I think about all of the formulas that we create for programming languages and even Analytics and realize that I wouldn't necessarily understand them if I didn't have the foundations that algebra taught me. All that to say YES BOTH - maybe we could start algebra a little earlier in education to allow for an additional year where you learn to apply everything in a Data Science course!