Math textbooks should do more than just give numbers to Florida's students

Gov. Ron DeSantis claims that math is only about “getting the answer” — and that math curriculum should contain nothing but rote memorization. But as a medical professor for several decades, I can tell you that this is far from the truth.

Any chimpanzee can punch a few numbers into a calculator and get an answer, but the resultant number would be meaningless to that chimp. The fact is that math supplies us with tools for use in accomplishing real-life problems — they are not just numbers on a piece of paper. It would be like memorizing all of the Spanish verbs yet still not be able to ask directions to the bathroom.

Unfortunately, for years I have heard students — including medical students — say things like:

• “I’m not good at math.”

• “I hate math.”

• "Why do I have to learn this stuff?"

• "I’ll never use any of this.”

But how many of these students would say, “I hate reading and will never use it”? The problem is that many of my students were never taught the real-life, practical uses for the magical tools provided by math.

Do I love math? No way. But I certainly used it while running my home restoration business. I absolutely use it in my medical endeavors. And I definitely use it in my daily life around my house. I don’t love math any more than I love my power drill, but it has been a priceless tool nonetheless.

The key is to make math as a subject come to life; indeed, it is critical. My medical students can add and subtract, but they don’t understand how these numbers critically relate to each other.

For example, it is vital for my students to know why changing heart volumes create changes in cardiac output. That's why I am constantly coming up with analogies to make the numbers apply to life. And it's why on countless occasions I have told my students: “This really matters. You really need to be able to do this."

In fact, I know all of this from my own experience as a student.

Yes, I extracted square roots as a student — but nobody ever told me why I might need to know the square root of something. Yes, I tediously “proved” the Pythagorean Theorem — but nobody ever explained how useful it would be to understand the relationships between the sides of triangles when I wanted to lay out a garden or make sure my new carport was square.

Fortunately, I eventually found ways to use these examples of knowledge as time went on. But now kids just punch numbers into their smartphones and get an answer that means little or nothing to them.

So, yes, Gov. DeSantis is wrong: getting the answer in math is not the most important part. The most important part is to understand which numbers to enter, why they matter, what the resulting answer means and how to use that answer to solve a real-life problem.

That's what matters, and anything that our math textbooks can do to make these subjects come to life for our kids will benefit them as students — and benefit all of us as Floridians.

James Stewart has been a professor of medical physiology at State College of Florida, the University of New Mexico and Saba University in the Caribbean. He lives in Parrish.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: James Stewart: No, Gov. DeSantis, math not just about 'getting an answer'