Such courses, Hacker argues, are a remedy for the numerical illiteracy of adults who have completed high-level math like algebra but are unable to calculate the price of a carpet by area.

哈克认为，这样的课程可以弥补成年人在数字方面的盲点，这些人已经完成了像代数这样的高级数学，但却无法按面积计算出一块地毯的价格。