1+8=Maths - Dear Luna

Dear Luna,

Perhaps this isn't really a topic I should be writing about as I am no longer at school and I am in the creative industry, but it is very tiring to hear over and over again how subjects that fit in the academic realm have a higher platform than the subjects that fall into the creative world. As you can guess, the irritation of our Prime Minster, Rishi Sunak, stating he will be trying to change the education system for all students to do maths until they are eighteen, is boiling inside of me. 

I did my maths GCSEs in 2015 and passed with a high B. For my A-levels, I choose, English Lit and Lang, Health and Social Care, Sociology, and Art, dropping the last one as I continued my second year, (before you think, ahhh you must have been dumb that's why you dropped one, no, I was the last year where you could choose four subjects and then drop one during your second year). And then studied Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire. As you can clearly see the subject which I choose, and the career path I have adventured down, does not need any influence of maths. And if one of the characters in my books happens to be influenced by the maths world, I would do my research; funnily enough, one of my main characters are. Before anyone who is reading this thinks, but you only got a B, not an A or A*, I would like to say one thing, I'm bad at tests, the pressure does find me and I panic, but I was in top set maths and in lessons I mostly received A/A*. 
However, none of that really matters, because as long as you receive a C, you are capable of doing everyday maths which you would use when going to the shops or a restaurant or measuring something for your room. 

Now, I understand why our Prime Minster mentioned this as there are many people who live in the United Kingdom that do not have a grasp of simple maths. However, most likely forcing them to continue to do maths will not really be beneficial, especially if people do not enjoy it and are happy to drop it and focus on a subject which will path them closer towards the career which they want. On top of that, I think there is a vital problem that Sunak is missing, and that is looking into the background of these students who most likely are failing maths. We know that 60% of disadvantaged students do not have a basic understanding of maths, but instead of forcing them to continue, why not actually understand what challenges these students are facing which affect them to gain at least a C? 
Maybe, I am thinking like this because I did sociology, and one of the core elements of this course is looking into society and seeing how every area of our world links with one another. Students who come from poor working-class families are most likely to fail for several reasons, perhaps they already have to work more than one job which automatically means they do not have time to revise, it might make them tired during school time which means they can’t focus on the subject and therefore fail. 
I'm sure people are reading this, shaking their heads and thinking, 'how naive do you have to be, those students are most likely just hanging around parks, drinking, and doing drugs.' And I am sure, some of them might be, but one of the reasons for this could be because they have nowhere to go, their home might be a bad place for them to stay, and many youth clubs have been shut down because our government took the founding away. But I remember going to youth club and not only was it a place to play, but it was a place to learn. 

I think many governments always try to find the easy way out of things when the problem really is buried deep, and only when you start peeling back the layers of why a student might not have a basic understanding of maths do you then realise that it could be due to the way life is right now in the United Kingdom. 

I often believe that every student should do sociology for GCSE, or at least have an enrichment class once a week that might cover topics that we looked into when doing sociology. Because for me, it is that subject which truly helps you understand that not everything is as clear as people think it is. People do not fit into one box, instead, many boxes affect them. 

As I've mentioned before, sure, I understand why Sunak would want to do this, not only it gives a student more chances to understand maths, which will help them for their life after school, but it could ultimately help the economy. However, as much as I understand, there are many elements in maths that many students do not need to truly understand depending on their job. For example, my job as a freelance ghostwriter does not need algebra and histograms, sure, understanding numbers to make sure I am paid the best I can be per hour is needed, but the rest, no.

This is why I propose that it would be better to have a lesson once a week which goes over budgeting, mortgaging, investing and more number base topics which will affect our lives. I remember we only had one forty-five minute lesson on budgeting during the summer term before our exams and before we were off to university. That was not enough. 
Instead of continuing maths, why not take the chance to teach our students the maths which we will see every day in our life, because most of us do not have a true understanding as we were never taught. In fact, we were all just pushed into the real world and told 'good luck.'

Until next time, Luna ❤️❤️❤️