Overall, America's math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have risen since the 1990s though remain disappointing when compared to the rest of the globe.
When I was in high school, I lettered in math. The only thing that was important was football. There were two other letters that were awarded each year. One was in math and one was in science. I got the math one. But you didn't put it on a letter sweater and wear it around because they'd be throwing you in a wastebasket upside down on your head.
We have a culture where it’s OK to not know anything about mathematics whereas in Asia, they don’t
I have been running maths clubs for children completely free. In my building in Bangalore, I conduct maths clubs for several months, and every child who attended the club was poor in mathematics and is now showing brilliant results.
You still hear this perception that boys are good at math and girls are not, and it's not cool and it's not interesting. And I think we have to shift the culture. It's so deeply entrenched in who we are.
I have met a lot of women who are good at math.
I guess you could say I was kind of a nerd in high school, so I was in the upper division math courses - I embrace my inner nerd.
Almost 50 years old now, some 30 years after graduation, I look at my Caltech classmates and conclude that math whizzes do not take over the world.
Let's make math fun and sexy and glamorous. Smart is sexy, that's one of my main messages.
