Maths is often viewed as a meaningless chore by students. However, secondary school teacher-turned-writer and television personality Bobby Seagull believes “maths is truly a universal language” because “if aliens were to land on our planet, they would not share our culture, but would share our prime numbers.”
Hearing Seagull profess his passion for mathematics through a rap was certainly an unusual but much appreciated end to a wonderful talk on the seventeenth of January, titled "We are all made of numbers."
Bobby Seagull rose to prominence captaining Emmanuel College during the forty-sixth season of the quiz program University Challenge, losing the tournament to a team led by fellow polymath Eric Monkman - with whom he now presents Monkman & Seagull’s genius guide to Britain on BBC Two. In addition to this, he has authored two books, writes a column for the Financial Times, and is an ambassador for National Numeracy, a charity which aims to improve the mathematical abilities of children and adults alike.
The lecture was centred upon the importance of maths within our society; he began by detailing his introduction to mathematics as a child. He revealed that his father took him and his siblings to the local library every Saturday after lunch, where he began to amass his impressive knowledge of any manner of topics. Seagull followed this anecdote with another about one of his first mathematical experiences as a nine-year-old: He, like many other children his age, collected football stickers – which he describes as “treasure troves of information.” After recalling entering player’s attributes as displayed on the collectables into an early version of Microsoft Excel, in order to unearth the most-skilled footballer, he announced “numbers don’t lie” - a very dramatic statement.
Discussing national numeracy, Seagull lamented the poor attitude that many people hold towards mathematics. Speaking about his time preparing the BBC Breakfast presenters for taking the new 9-1 GCSE, he lamented the British negative mindset towards the subject, declaring that people almost had a sense of pride towards their inability to perform basic calculations. Having declared “those who succeed have a growth mindset”, he gave the example of how the reporter Jayne McCubbin “now has a much better attitude towards maths” having received a passing grade of a 5. Revealing his humorous character, he went on to divulge to his audience that on Jayne’s results-day he “got rejected for a high five twice on live TV, lowering [his] street-cred”
Perhaps Jayne had previously suffered from Mathematical anxiety (a feeling of apprehension that can interfere with one’s mathematical performance), which is the subject of Seagull’s ongoing doctorate at the University of Cambridge.
After his motivational talk, I was given the opportunity to ask Mr Seagull several questions:
Could the methods of revision employed by yourself in becoming a polymath be applied by students to their GCSEs ore other qualifications?
“Yes. To become a polymath (someone who appreciates a wide range of subjects) requires enthusiasm because sometimes you think ‘oh, I’m not naturally good at languages or not naturally good at maths.’ You need to overcome that attitude. Once you’ve overcome that, you’re much more likely to find connections, for example, when you are studying geography, clearly there are uses of maths and science and some ethics, so its people that are able to cut between boundaries and not compartmentalise learning early. So that’s more normal to say ah, ‘I’m learning maths today, I’m learning history today, what if you see being polymathic, it’s about trying to combine the different subjects in your mind”
Despite your television show you still find time to teach. How do you manage your time so effectively?
“So the first answer is that it’s difficult… it’s definitely challenging, but I think its…trying to prioritise what I want to do because I want to be a tough teacher because I need to see students every week and understand things that they like about maths, things they don’t like about maths. But then I have also got this platform now through the media – television, radio, newspapers, to communicate that to a wide audience, So I’m also in a unique spot where I can communicate it as – I’m going to hate this word but in inverted commas - a ‘celebrity’, but also I’ve got that practical persona, ‘Mr Seagull’, I’m in class, still telling off students and giving detentions and calling parents. So both [personas] together are the perfect combination.”
You have campaigned for increased national maths literacy, through what means do you believe that this can be achieved?
“For maths literacy, I think it’s trying to show people that maths is everywhere, you know, whether they’re cooking, or planning journey times, budgeting for a holiday, or even looking at their gas statement, they are using numbers, and the more you realise that’s all numbers, the better attitude you’ll have towards mathematics.”
Do you believe that the government's recent pledge to boost school funding by fourteen billion pounds will help attain this or do wish more measures must be taken to re-educate adults?
“Yes, obviously I welcome any funds into education, but a lot of people in the UK are beyond sixteen and eighteen so that means that they are not in the school system, so clearly thought has to be made, how can we make sure that people that hated maths at school develop a better attitude towards numeracy”
What are your views upon private education, having been educated at Eton College and taught at a state school?
“So, my background is I went to a state school in East London called St. Bonaventure’s – it’s a good state school - and then I got a scholarship to Eton. Obviously, it was a completely different world. What I want to say is that I’m always a believer in choice; giving people the option whether they want to pick private or state. Some of the people in the state sector make arguments that we should close down all the private schools, then would that be better for the state sector, but my view is we should focus more in making sure that as a government, for example, they should make sure that they increase resources and make state schools more attractive, not demonising a private sector.”
What are your plans for the future – will you be writing more books, expanding your media career?
I’d love to be, in the UK, the person that everyone associates with maths in a positive way. Whether someone is in school and they’re struggling, they remember ‘oh that Bobby Seagull, he’s a positive guy’, or whether someone is out there in the workplace, and they’re struggling with a spreadsheet, or someone is doing shopping and they are looking at discounts and they ask ‘ah, how do I work this out, ah Bobby has given me a little bit of a positive boost"
These answers display Bobby’s enthusiasm surrounding mathematics by communicating his passion for improving numeracy and imparting his knowledge to his students despite his other commitments.
