Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!steinmetz!ge-dab!codas!killer!elg From: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) Newsgroups: comp.edu Subject: U.S. Mathematicians dying breed Message-ID: <2376@killer.UUCP> Date: Tue, 8-Dec-87 01:59:29 EST Article-I.D.: killer.2376 Posted: Tue Dec 8 01:59:29 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 13-Dec-87 17:33:31 EST Reply-To: elg@killer.UUCP (Eric Green) Organization: Bayou Telecommunications Lines: 24 [excerpted from an AP news article in the local newspaper:] An annual survey found that nationwide only 362 U.S. citizens got doctorates in math during the 1986-1987 school year. The decline in graduate researchers is blamed in large part on a decades-old shortage of qualified teachers at the elementary and secondary level. "There's always been a finite pool of people with mathematical and if they aren't interested before they enter high school they are not going to take enough math to have the option of exploring the field by the time they get to college. Somepeople will go into mathematics whatever the odds and obstacles. But they don't tend to be the kind of people who become good teachers. And we are losing anyone who can do anything else." It goes on to mention that the total number of math doctorates has been steadily declining for the past 15 years. Commentary: As a field that derives much of its substance from the mathematical arts, CS education is in big trouble if, 20 years from now, we cannot find people with the knowledge to teach CS students the discrete mathematics etc. that are so important for CS students to know. -- Eric Lee Green elg@killer.UUCP Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191 {cbosgd,ihnp4}!killer!elg Lafayette, LA 70509 "There's someone in my head, but it's not me...." -PF