Few other skills are as important or transferable as mathematics, says Maleek Elmahdi, 16, from Beauchamp City Sixth Form.
Maths is the most important skill you can learn
When most people think of maths, they think of long sleepless nights of study which ultimately get them nowhere and will do them no good in their lives. Or they think of that dreaded GCSE certificate which “the system” has deemed mandatory, just to see us suffer.
Many people view maths as a bunch of numbers and letters put together in a way which seems abstract and alien; there only for geeky minds willing to dedicate their lives to it, or for those choosing niche technical jobs requiring its application.
Although I disagree with these views, I acknowledge them and understand the perspective from which they come. The way maths is taught in most schools too often makes it neither appealing nor interesting for most people.
Maths ability is made out to be a talent, or a natural blessing from God which one cannot learn or master, but must be born with. This is completely wrong.
Maths is a skill, just like playing an instrument or learning a new language. It can be learnt, practised and enjoyed. In fact, I believe it is the most important skill you can learn because of how applicable and transferable it is.
Think of maths as a journey. You come across a problem which seems abstract, so you try to understand it. Once you understand it, you try to solve it. You get it wrong the first time, so you try a different approach, until you ultimately reach the solution. You started off ignorant and ended up going on a path of problem-solving and critical thinking, which led you to the solution.
In my opinion, reaching the solution is the least important part: it is the how and the why which matter most. The fact that there are infinitely many paths you could take to reach the same solution trains you to become a better problem solver and breeds creativity and imagination, and, in turn, teaching structured thinking. These are all attributes and qualities which are well sought after in the job market and are extremely helpful for life in general.
But of course, there is still an elephant in the room which must be addressed, and that is the difficulty of maths. People can spend hours upon hours on a single problem and get nowhere.
Understandably, this can seem discouraging and tortuous. However, it is this aspect of maths that breeds two of the most important qualities of all: resilience and humility.
Take, for example, Fermat’s Last Theorem, a conjecture stating that the sum of two numbers raised to the same power must never be a third number raised to the same power. This conjecture was proposed by Pierre de Fermat in 1637 and was only proven in 1993 by British mathematician Andrew Wiles.
Imagine if the mathematical community had decided that this problem was impossible or not worth their time — it would never have been solved. However, the perseverance maths teaches makes it extremely rare for a theory or conjecture to seem “impossible”; rather, it simply needs to be approached in a different way. This is the beauty of maths.
There is more to maths though than just proving theories and solving equations. Maths is applicable in a wide range of technical and research fields. Physics is extremely maths-reliant, and so are finance and engineering.
Even in rapidly evolving fields such as data science and artificial intelligence, maths is at the forefront of advancement, with advanced statistical models involved in many areas. The transferable skills maths teaches are sought after by almost every field, as they are skills for life. Think of it like this: once you’ve learned to survive a brutal maths problem, very few things in life seem unapproachable.
To conclude, maths is an amazing way to gain extremely important skills, because maths itself is a skill which can be learnt. It teaches resilience, perseverance and humility, all qualities which everyone wants to possess. Maths can be for anyone; it all depends on the way you approach it and view it. Even if you never touch an equation again, the way maths teaches you to think stays with you. Maths doesn’t just teach you how to solve problems, it teaches you to not be afraid of them.
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