Why do you need to study Maths?

Why do you need to study Maths? Random thoughts on a Thursday morning... 

Calculators can do all that stuff... True, AI can do more advanced stuff too. We actually don't need to learn anything in the brave new world.

Meanwhile, there is something called "reasoning" which distinguishes man from other animals. Maths is the language of reasoning, of helping you think more clearly. 

We need "tools" for systematising our thought process. Maths offers us those tools and helps us think far beyond what mere conventional language would limit us to. 

Maths insists on precision. Most people nowadays get by with wishy washy thinking, and language consisting of word salads. A person trained in Maths is incapable of talking like a Kamala maami of US election fame or like pappu the redoubtable scion!

Maths expresses grand ideas in elegant form. In that sense, it is like music. Losing oneself in a maths problem is the same feeling as getting carried away by a sublime piece of music! 

Like music or karate, Maths involves dedication and discipline to learn; has graded levels for judging incremental progress; and there is no end to the learning. Maths is a combination of science and art - it is all science  in its formation, but it is like art in its application. 

Maths is at the same time: grandeur and brevity; precision and breadth; logic and beauty. 

Maths is a language but it is unlike a normal natural language. Like any language, it helps in communication, expression  and expansion of  ideas. 

The difference between a literate and illiterate person? It's not IQ, I know servant maids who are smarter than many of us. It's not wisdom, most less educated  rural folk  are wiser than many of the educated folks we see around; it is basically the ability to structure thought logically, and form "chunks" of knowledge to build upon. Knowledge of maths helps considerably in doing that. 

We are not talking "advanced" maths here, we are talking of basic school level stuff. 

Whatever the advancements in technology, maths will still be relevant. 

And yes, it requires a bit of hard work. Which is good. 

Whatever happens, don't let your kid drop maths as a subject at least till tenth standard. 

The proverbial three Rs, Reading, Writing, and 'Rithmetic, are still the basic skills every person needs to learn to call themselves educated!