Mid-April 1987: My Parting Advice to 1st Year Quantitative Methods Students

 University of Botswana, Gaborone

This year we have travelled many winding and challenging mathematical roads together.  Some of the material you have learned will be useful to you whether you continue in environmental science or not.  For example, statistical means and graphs will come in handy no matter what career you pursue.  Some material will be repeated in the advanced quantitative methods class in this department.  Beyond that, you may or may never again use methods such as the standard deviation depending on the type of work you wind up doing after graduation. 

So why was it helpful for you to learn the material in this class?  I hope that it got you to better perceive and understand spatial and mathematical data.  Also, I suspect that you have become more comfortable working with and solving problems involving numbers.

For many of you, this class has been a struggle.  I encourage you stick with mathematics and you’ll eventually find it becomes easier.  So, why was this class so challenging for you?  I’d like to suggest that many of you did not get an early exposure to mathematics and numerical and spatial relationships either at home or at school. 

My goal for Botswana, which I hope you share, is to eliminate the need for most of us foreign workers within a generation.  The main impediment to this accomplishment is the country’s need for professionals in technical fields which require mathematical and scientific proficiency.  How do more Batswana become comfortable and proficient with mathematics and how can you help?   

Well, most of you will graduate and find good jobs that will enable you to live a comfortable, middle class lifestyle.  [They cheered when I said this].  Most of you will marry and have kids [They cheered even louder].  My advice is that you give your children toys at an early age that help them develop rudimentary mathematical, spatial, and scientific skills and perception.  Examples are toy building blocks, construction sets, and games involving numbers.  I can assure you based on my own experience as a child, that playing with these kinds of toys will enable them be comfortable with simple math by the time they enter primary school.  And even if your kids ultimately become social workers or language teachers, they will have had more options in the choice of a career because of their mathematical skills.

Addendum:  I was very proud of the 74 students (out of 76 enrolled) who passed the course.  I didn’t feel too bad about the two who flunked as they were both frequently absent from class.   

 

Ever the creative photographer, my best Botswana buddy, Hugh, had me pose with two lights strategically appearing on either side of my head.  Along with the starry look in my eyes, it rather gives me an alien appearance, wouldn’t you agree?  Photo by Hugh Gordon.