Mathematics for all - Carol Vorderman advises ... and advertises

Carol Vorderman is now a government adviser on mathematics education. This gives me a real problem as I can't forget her unprincipled and highly-paid TV advertisement campaign for FirstPlus, one of the biggest debt consolidation companies in the market, while debt charities urged her to stop promoting a company that offers debt consolidation loans that put people's homes at risk.

However, let's put that aside and think about mathematics.

I agree with Vorderman that too much of what we teach children in mathematics is irrelevant to their daily lives and their future work, and that until children are secure in basic arithmetic, then there is no point in going on to deal with the more abstruse aspects of set theory. So I'ld support an approach to the National Curriculum that led to a straightforward emphasis on useful mathematics, and left the other elements to options.