If you don’t understand statistics, you don’t know what’s going on — and you can’t tell when you’re being lied to. Statistics should now be a core part of general education. You shouldn’t finish high school without understanding it reasonably well — as well, say, as you can compose an essay.
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This line of thinking may have been a more effective way of promoting American participation in this years’ census.
On the point of stats being included in general education, I wholeheartedly agree, and not just because I’m a sociology grad AND a data visualization geek. We need statistics to better understand and interpret the rich emotional and anecdotal data we collect through observation- the whole being more than the sum of its parts and all.
Designers who understand statistics wield a particularly critical power, crafting a visual tool to communicate the meaning and impact of the data, above and beyond the density of the numbers themselves. I agree that the study of statistics should be a part of general education, but I would also argue that it should just as well be integrated into design education as well.
Clive Thompson on Why We Should Learn the Language of Data | Magazine
