SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 1942
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE SEVEN
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Military Authorities Stress Value of Math For Officers
The February issue of the Mathematics Teacher magazine carried two letters concerning the college men of military age, the U.S. Navy, and mathematics. The first letter, from Louis I. Bredvold, member of the University of Michigan advisory committee on military affairs, is addressed to the head of the training division of the Bureau of Naviga- $ ^{ \textcircled{2}} $
ion in Washington, D.C.:
"My dear Captain Lake:
"When Admiral Nimmitz visited the campus of the University of Michigan the other day, he mentioned that there had been some difficulty in finding students in American colleges, other than those in engineering, who were sufficiently prepared in mathematics to make them acceptable for training for commissions in the Navy. This situation ought to be called to the attention of educators in the colleges and secondary schools throughout the country. I should deeply appreciate receiving a statement from you on this matter, especially if you could give me such facts and figures as would constitute a self-evident argument. I hope also that it will not be necessary to set any restrictions on the use of such information. It seems to me that educators should promptly recognize the danger, if there is any, from our past softening of our educational programs.
Very truly yours,
Louis I. Bredvold"
The second letter, a reply to Mr. Bredvold from C. W. Nimmitz, Chief of Bureau of Navigation (now commander of Naval forces at Pearl Harbor), reads as follows:
"My dear Professor Bredvold:
"Thank you for your letter of October 30. While we have not felt that it was our business to compile exhaustive data on our observations of the products of the educational systems of this country, we are in a position to give you some information on this subject.
"A carefully prepared selective examination was given to 4,200 entering freshmen at 27 of the leading universities and colleges of the United States. Sixty-eight per cent of the men taking this examination were unable to pass the arithmetical reasoning test. Sixty-two per cent failed the whole test, which included also
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arithmetical combinations, vocabulary, and spatial relations. The majority of failures were not merely borderline, but were far below grade. Of the 4,200 entering freshmen who wished to enter the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps, only 10 per cent had already taken elementary trigonometry in the high schools from which they had graduated. Only 23 per cent of the 4,200 had taken more than one and a half years of mathematics in high school.
This same lack of fundamental education presented, and continues to present, a major obstacle in the selection and training of midshipmen for commissions as ensigns, V-7. Of 8,000 applicants—all college graduates—some 3,000 had to be rejected because they had had no mathematics or insufficient mathematics at college nor had they ever taken plane trigonometry. Almost 40 per cent of the college graduates applying for commissions had not in the course of their education taken this essential mathematics course.
The experience which the Navy had had in attempting to teach navigation in the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps Units and in the Naval Reserve Midshipmen Training Program (V-7) indicates that 75 per cent of
the failures in the study of navigation must be attributed to the lack of an adequate knowledge of mathematics. Since mathematics is also necessary in fire control and in many other vital branches of the naval officer's profession, it can readily be understood that a candidate for training for a commission in the Naval Reserve cannot be regarded as good material unless he has taken sufficient mathematics.
The Navy depends for its efficiency upon trained men. The men are trained at schools conducted for this purpose and the admission of men to these schools is based upon the meeting of certain carefully established requirements. However, in order to enroll the necessary number of men in the training schools, it was found necessary at one of the training stations to lower the standards in 50 per cent of the admissions. This necessity is attributed to a deficiency in the early educations of the men involved. The requirements had to be lowered in the field of arithmetical attainment. Relative to the results obtained in the General Classification Test, the lowest category of achievement was in arithmetic.
A study has been made of the grades received in the examinations of candidates for enlistment in the Navy, classified geographically according to the location of the recruiting station through which the candidates applied for enlistment. It is to be noted that the proficiency in arithmetic in the eastern part of the country was strikingly greater than that of the middle west and west. The lowest average mark east of the Mississippi was equal to the highest average mark west of the Mississippi. The three highest average attain-
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ments in arithmetic were achieved by the recruiting stations in Troy, Brooklyn, and Buffalo—all in New York State.
"May I express the hope that this information will be of assistance to you.
Do your part by buying your share every pay day.
Brush Makes Survey Of Military Service Of C.A.A. Graduates
A survey on flight training graduates is being conducted by Edward E. Brush, associate professor of aeronautical engineering, to determine how many of his former students are now actively engaged in military service.
A letter has been sent to the parents of the 303 aeronautical students asking about the men's present activities, their present addresses, and if they are engaged in U.S. Air Corps service. Brush said the replies coming in show that many of the men, if not in the air corps, are serving as flight instructors.
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