When I was in grad school at St. Bonaventure studying to become a school district leader, one of my professors told the class that math teachers make the best school administrators because of their problem solving abilities and their analytical skills.

Of course this professor, who was also working as a public school administrator, was also a former math teacher. Being a math teacher myself at the time, his statement made me feel pretty good about my decision to go into public school administration. My mathematics background served me well during my more than two decades as a school administrator.

As a math teacher for nearly 20 years, I had a canned response to students who would ask. “When are we ever gonna use this stuff?” Studying math teaches attention to detail and problem solving skills as well as analytical and reasoning skills.

All are applicable to everyday life. Many students were never quite satisfied with this response. Even fewer students wanted to hear that studying math strengthens neural connections in the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobes improving executive functions.

Studying math changes brains for the better.

Recent events have me wondering. Could U.S. students’ woeful achievement in math over the last 30 plus years be related to their inability as adults to recognize when elected officials are lying to them? Could adults’ lack of mathematical reasoning skills account for some individuals’ staunch belief in “fake news”? Could a lack of analytical skills be the reason why two people can watch the same video of an event and draw diametrically opposed conclusions about what they viewed? Could this lack of reasoning be traced back to the damage that the Common Core Curriculum and other so-called educational reforms have done to math instruction?

Mathematical Logic is a core branch of math that formalizes reasoning while exploring deduction and truth. Perhaps the study of logic could help individuals recognize and correct untrue statements and heal the political divide in this country? The mathematical negation of the untrue statement, “All Democrats are wrong” is not, “All Democrats are right. The negation is, “Some Democrats are right and some Democrats are wrong.” The mathematical negation of the untrue statement, “All Republicans are bad”, is not “All Republicans are good.” The negation is, “Some Republicans are bad and some Republicans are good.” The negation of the untrue statement “Democrats and Republicans have nothing in common” is “Democrats and Republicans have some things in common.” And I believe that the people in this country have much more in common with each other than the issues that divide us. Math proves it.

Be Good. Do Good. Study Math. God Bless. And Go Bills!

Andrew Ludwig is a retired math teacher and a retired public school and Catholic school administrator. He currently works as a substitute teacher in Chautauqua County.