The Super Bowl: XLVI Is Greek To Kids As Schools Stop Teaching Roman Numerals

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Kids LOL and OMG each other all the livelong day, but ask them to decipher the XLVI of this year's Super Bowl and you might as well be talking Greek.

They may know what X means, or V and I, but Roman numerals beyond the basics have largely gone the way of cursive and penmanship as a subject taught in the nation's schools.

Students in high school and junior high get a taste of the Roman system during Latin (where Latin is still taught, anyway). And they learn a few Roman numerals in history class when they study the monarchs of Europe.

But in elementary school, "Roman numerals are a minor topic," said Jeanine Brownell of the early mathematics development program at Erickson Institute, a child-development graduate school in Chicago.

That's not how Joe Horrigan remembers it.

"I went to Catholic school. I still have bruised knuckles from not learning them," said the NFL historian and spokesman for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

What's wrong with good ol' 46 to describe this year's Super Bowl between the Giants and the Patriots on Sunday?

"'Number 46'' it just kind of sounds like an inventory. 'Inspected by Joe,'" said Joe, who is LX years old. "Those Roman numerals, they're almost like trophies."

Any football fan worth his weight in nachos will find a way to figure out the Super Bowl number from one year to the next, but shouldn't kids have some sense of the Romans as an actual numbering system?

"My son is in first grade and this recently came up when we were clock shopping," said Eileen Wolter of Summit, N.J. "He couldn't believe they were real numbers. They only ever get used for things like copyrights or sporting events, which in my humble opinion harkens even further back to the gladiatorial barbaric nature of things like the Super Bowl."

Gerard Michon isn't much of a football fan, either, but he keeps a close eye on Super Bowls over at Numericana.com, where he dissects math and physics and discusses the Roman system ad nauseam.

Starting with Super Bowl XLI in 2007, he has been getting an abnormal number of game-day visits from football fans with a sudden interest in Roman numerals. On the day of last year's Super Bowl XLV, so many people visited that Michon's little server crashed. When the dust cleared, he had logged 15,278 hits, more than 90 percent landing on "XLV."

"Last year was total madness," Michon said, in part "because so many people were wondering why VL isn't a correct replacement for XLV." When the Super Bowl started, the games were assigned simple Roman numerals "that everybody knows," he said. Now "it looks kind of mysterious."

The use of Roman numerals to designate Super Bowls began with game V in 1971, won by the Baltimore Colts over the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 on Jim O'Brien's 32-yard field goal with five seconds remaining. Numerals I through IV were added later for the first four Super Bowls.

"The NFL didn't model after the Olympics," said Dan Masonson, director of the league's corporate communications. Instead, he said, the Roman system was adopted to avoid any confusion that might occur because of the way the Super Bowl is held in a different year from the one in which most of the regular season is played.

Bob Moore, historian for the Kansas City Chiefs, credits the idea of using Roman numerals to Lamar Hunt, the late Chiefs owner and one of the godfathers of the modern NFL. (History also credits Hunt with coming up with the name "Super Bowl" for the big game.)

"The Roman numerals made it much more important," Moore said. "It's much more magisterial."

Or as Michon put it: Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur - "Anything stated in Latin looks important."

Linsey Knerl, who is homeschooling her five children in Tekamah, Neb., is teaching them Roman numerals, showing her oldest - who is 13 - how to decipher chapter numbers while reading "Oliver Twist."

"I realize that it may not seem to be the most culturally relevant thing you can teach kids these days," she said. "But if kids can get what LOL and ROFL mean, things like XXII should be a piece of cake."

Comments

[JeanRR]

07:50 AM on 02/06/2012

On good thing about the SuperBowl, they are still using Roman Numerals. That means every year, sports fans have to learn one little thing.

[MuchMadness]

01:04 AM on 02/04/2012

I bet many Patriots fans prefer the Roman numerals XLVI. The number 46 must bring back unpleasant memories of Super Bowl XX.

[El Chingaso]

01:33 PM on 02/03/2012

"But in elementary school, 'Roman numerals are a minor topic,' said Jeanine Brownell of the early mathematics development program at Erickson Institute […].”

"That's not how Joe Horrigan remembers it."

That's not how I remember it, either. Back in the early-1970s, when schools actually "educated" students beyond simple test taking, Roman numerals and cursive writing were introduced as early as third grade, and mastered accordingly over the following year. Of course, that was back in the days when education in America was ranked number one on the international stage – unlike today, where aggregate student proficiency in the U.S. ranks below newly-developing nations in Eastern Europe.

Ah, the memories...

(Now, children, back to your Xbox lesson.)

[HexaShadow13]

10:38 PM on 02/02/2012

As a student who learned both Roman numerals and the Greek alphabet, I find them entirely pointless. Roman numerals have no logical reason to be used other than that they look cool at this point, and the Greek letters that are used as variables you can pick up on when they are used in physics or other sciences. Actually having students make sure they learn them is good for free time, but it would probably be better to teach something more useful. I share the same belief about the entire year I spent learning about mythology instead of actual history. >_

[JeanRR]

07:51 AM on 02/06/2012

So sad that you has such a negative reaction to learning mythology. Was it just Greek myths you disliked or do you include the Norse, Hebrew and Christian ones also?

[HexaShadow13]

11:12 AM on 02/06/2012

Oh I love Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Norse mythology. I used to get loads of books from the library about it when I was little, even before the units in school. I also still like it now. Also they didn't teach any Hebew/Norse mythology at my school.

I just don't think it has much practical purpose and should not be required for an education. I mean, I love most of the classic Disney movies, and they have great morals, but I wouldn't expect them to be part of an education. Similar to that.

[subversive86]

07:55 PM on 02/01/2012

Today's Romans don't even use Roman numerals. Roman numerals are really just nostalgia at this point. It would make more sense to teach kids how to count in binary.

I don't understand the point of saying that the 'Number 46' just kinds SOUNDS like an inventory, when the Roman numeral XLVI SOUNDS exactly the same. They both are pronounced '46'. One just requires that you actually do some arithmetic to determine the pronunciation.

[Gareth Harris]

06:18 PM on 02/01/2012

There are those who think Arabic numbers [1234567890] are un-American and would take us back to Roman numerals.

[Ariel Bonzai]

04:45 PM on 02/01/2012

I taughtvthesevto myself. And other than treehouse of Horror episodes from the skpsons and fables I have never used em. And I am old.

[Fran Jaime]

08:17 PM on 02/01/2012

The problem is that kids in the US are not getting things that are general culture. Roman numerals are used in other parts of the world and are an important part of history.

[Ariel Bonzai]

01:08 AM on 02/02/2012

I didn't realize they were still used. Educated in America. I agree that our culture is paradoxically short sighted about the importance of understanding and respecting others. Some melting pot.

[shortguy54]

01:40 PM on 02/01/2012

Roman numerals belong to history. Because the past is never really over, no one who doesn't know history can understand the present or anticipate the future in an informed way.

[LXIX WITHU]

01:38 PM on 02/01/2012

Schools have also stopped teaching right from wrong.

[AndrewSpader]

01:05 PM on 02/01/2012

For those of you who want to learn Roman numerals.. here is a chart.
http://literacy.kent.edu/Minigrants/Cinci/romanchart.htm

[rjcate14]

12:13 PM on 02/01/2012

this makes me sad- i had to learn roman numerals and i always thought it was interesting - but now schools have done away with it and curve writing- i know it is probably more important to learn how to type but i still think writing is an important skill to have

[DizzyDancing12]

01:31 PM on 02/01/2012

It is just all about computers now. Cursive writing and learning Roman Numerals (really? I thought those were at least still being taught) apparently have gone by the wayside.

[rjcate14]

10:23 PM on 02/01/2012

I am not sure when they stop teaching Roman Numerals but they have been trying to weed out cursive writing for the past couple of years

[devries22]

11:55 AM on 02/01/2012

Another example: it would be easy to learn the historical significance of Roman numerals, and it should be easier than learning counting in base 2, for digital applications, or base 10 which everyone must learn to exist in this world. Oh, sorry, some haven't learned even that and can't make change or keep a check book.
Another post said that 1 + 1 = 11. Actually 1 + 1 = 10. Or even 1 + 1 = 1 if its a digital circuit. They learn that stuff, why not simple Roman numerals.

[devries22]

11:49 AM on 02/01/2012

One other example of "chinese junk" is on a clock face of Roman numerals where 4:00 o'clock is shown as "IIII" instead of "IV" I pointed this out to a second grade teacher who said she never noticed that but will insist her students know the correct numerals.

[shortguy54]

01:42 PM on 02/01/2012

Actually, in the past it was often an acceptable alternative to write "IIII" instead of "IV". You see it that way on any number of ancient inscriptions. Just saying...

[JLHudgins]

11:42 AM on 02/01/2012

I teach Roman Numerals in my World History classes. Not only are they a fun activity while studying the Roman Empire, they come in handy when studying European History (Henry IV, Charles V, etc).

[Ariel Bonzai]

04:47 PM on 02/01/2012

Oh yeah. I am akways confused by that. I ca see how that's an issue vpbut he'd be 4 and 5 respectively in the new editions.

[Fran Jaime]

08:22 PM on 02/01/2012

Which is a great way to dumb down learning. Not too many years ago, I read a magazine article that said that words that were deemed "too difficult" or that would probably "not be used by the child in the future", such as elf, cobbler, and a very long list would be removed from elementary readers. That is horrifying! It is needlessly limiting a child's vocabulary. The same for Roman numbers. They are pertinent to history, editing and many other areas but they have been obviously been eliminated.

[Dumb Ol Bubba]

11:25 AM on 02/01/2012

My 11 year old know Roman Numerals very well because.....his parents taught him! In fact, one of my boy's favorite Kid's Folk Song CD's had a song called, "There are X...V...I...I...I... wheels on a big rig..." You can let the schools off the hook on this one as far as I'm concerned! Except for Super Bowl, the Olympics and copywright notations, Roman numerals are, for all intents and purposes, useless!

[Fran Jaime]

08:30 PM on 02/01/2012

Beg to differ! Here are some current uses of Roman numbers.
The year of construction on building faces and cornerstones.
Page numbering of prefaces and introductions of books.
Book volume and chapter numbers.
Sequels of movies, video games, and other works.
Outlines.
A recurring grand event, such as the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl.
In astronomy, the natural satellites or "moons" of the planets are traditionally designated by capital Roman numerals.

In chemistry, Roman numerals are used in the IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry, for the oxidation number of cations which can take on several different positive charges. They are also used for naming phases of polymorphic crystals, such as ice.

In earthquake seismology, Roman numerals are used to designate degrees of the Mercalli intensity scale.

In music theory, the diatonic functions are identified using roman numerals. See: Roman numeral analysis.

In performance practice, individual strings of stringed instruments, such as the violin, are often denoted by Roman numerals, with higher numbers denoting lower strings.

In photography, Roman numerals (with zero) are used to denote varying levels of brightness when using the Zone System.

This is from wikipedia.