COLUMN: Arabic numbers and Oklahoma education

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Until this week, I thought all Americans – including Oklahomans – over age 8 years knew we use Arabic numbers/numerals in this country. They're used in most of the world – or at least the countries where people count and do math with symbols instead of using knots in a rope or notches on a stick. This week, I learned different.With the electing of a Muslim senator of Arabic descent in the north, jokes started coming out about him requiring the U.S. to use Arabic numbers — and a number of adult humans went ballistic, either because “He can't make us change” or “He has no business telling us what to do.” I thought they were joking. At least, I thought the first half dozen, some of whom I somewhat know, were joking.Gradually, it penetrated my brain that they honestly didn't know we have always used Arabic number symbols – at least since we stopping using Roman numerals, which they probably can't decipher, either.

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