[SBeck]

Fire away. (No snide remarks from you engineers out there :-))

[ArcLight]

These ads are GREAT!

[Satadru]

It is funny how they make these commercials with black folks who seriously lack math skills. They probably think that if they show enough black folks studying math, there will probably be more black math majors. Yeah right! The funny thing is kids whe become math majors, are probably not watching afternoon TV at all. If all problems can be solved by pretending the opposite, then life would be so much easier.

[SBeck]

ping

[Phantom Lord]

Bump for later

[Incorrigible]

There are multiple ironies to these ads.

One:  The math wizes rarely are running the show.  They typically lack the social skills.  It's usually the "salesman" type personality that makes it to the top.  They may or may not have good math skills but are at least cunning.

Two:  It's all well and good to advertise that studying math will help you with your career.  The problem is who the kids are learning from.  There is a severe lack of educational fortitude when it comes to teaching math and sciences so kids usually lose interest.

Three:  Students who become lawyers are not typically mathematically inclined (I've known quite a few!).  However, if you ask a sophomore in high school, what profession he wants to enter and why, he'll tell you "law and money".

Four:  I bet if the commercial showed the math and engineering majors sitting in the science library until midnight on a Friday night while the liberal arts and business majors were getting sloshed at a party, they wouldn't be too convincing.  Yet that is what it takes to understand Calculus and such.

Now, I say all this as an Electrical Engineering major with a minor in Math.  Later I got an MBA and breezed through Economics, Statistics and other classes compared to those who did not have a mathematical foundation.  Engineers make a good salary but unless they figure out the business they're in and how to market themselves, they tend towards dead end careers themselves.  Albeit not minimum wage, but enough to be dissatisfied when the know-nothing, young MBA comes in and starts telling him what to do.

[litehaus]

SON = PhD, Math = 1st Year $160k----Yep Math Works!

[karatemom]

I am but a humble algebra teacher... I loved the ads!!

[Clintons Are White Trash]

I am an avowed math phobic - as far as I'm concerned as soon as you add letters to math you have changed it to english. Lucikly, my son wasn't the same way..after a year and a half of engineering school, he dropped to take a job in the computer industry - at 23 he's making over $50,000 a year. I keep bugging him to finish his degree but he doesn't see the sense in it and I am having a problem coming up with the right argument to convince him. Any ideas?