A nation of shopkeepers? We can’t aim even that high if we can’t calculate percentages. Governments have thrown themselves, one after another, at a national culture which makes it acceptable to say “I’m rubbish at maths” and deludes politicians and leading figures into thinking they’re displaying the common touch when they declare the same.
That so many initiatives have failed is no reason not to try. Prospect is committed to keeping attention on this debate; this month, we published a piece on this government's attempts to reform maths education. With it, we ran some quotes from famous names which show the extent to which it's OK to be less than OK at maths in Britain.
© LUKE MACGREGOR/WPA Rota/Press Association Images
“I was pleased you didn’t ask me any maths questions...Luckily my mother-in-law is a maths teacher so she is the expert [in our family]” Ed Balls
“I hope I’ve got the physical skills to fly a helicopter. But mentally, there are the exams and everything. I mean, I can’t do maths” Prince Harry
“I would have liked to have been examined in history, poetry and writing essays. The examiners, on the other hand, were partial to Latin and mathematics. And their will prevailed” Winston Churchill
“I’m shite at mathematics” Caitlin Moran (when 19)
“I did maths at school and for one year at university but I don’t think I was ever very good at it—and some people would say it shows” Gordon Brown
“I never managed more than a Grade 1 CSE [in maths]” Sarah Vine, journalist and wife of Michael Gove
“Maths is shite” Mhairi Black (as a teenager)
“To give courage to people who had a B in GCSE maths this year, you’ll be alright if you can be an actor. You can pretend to be Alan Turing. I wasn’t very good at maths at school” Benedict Cumberbatch
“I was totally hopeless at maths… Everybody else would be writing down the answer and I never worked out how to do it” Jacqueline Wilson
“[I’m] barely numerate” Jon Cruddas
That so many initiatives have failed is no reason not to try. Prospect is committed to keeping attention on this debate; this month, we published a piece on this government's attempts to reform maths education. With it, we ran some quotes from famous names which show the extent to which it's OK to be less than OK at maths in Britain.
© LUKE MACGREGOR/WPA Rota/Press Association Images
“I was pleased you didn’t ask me any maths questions...Luckily my mother-in-law is a maths teacher so she is the expert [in our family]” Ed Balls
“I hope I’ve got the physical skills to fly a helicopter. But mentally, there are the exams and everything. I mean, I can’t do maths” Prince Harry
“I would have liked to have been examined in history, poetry and writing essays. The examiners, on the other hand, were partial to Latin and mathematics. And their will prevailed” Winston Churchill
“I’m shite at mathematics” Caitlin Moran (when 19)
“I did maths at school and for one year at university but I don’t think I was ever very good at it—and some people would say it shows” Gordon Brown
“I never managed more than a Grade 1 CSE [in maths]” Sarah Vine, journalist and wife of Michael Gove
“Maths is shite” Mhairi Black (as a teenager)
“To give courage to people who had a B in GCSE maths this year, you’ll be alright if you can be an actor. You can pretend to be Alan Turing. I wasn’t very good at maths at school” Benedict Cumberbatch
“I was totally hopeless at maths… Everybody else would be writing down the answer and I never worked out how to do it” Jacqueline Wilson
“[I’m] barely numerate” Jon Cruddas
