Or, as Harvard researcher Howard Shaffer puts it, “Over the years, children have shown an increasing disinterest in mathematics.” At the same time, he adds, “they are very much into social problems: drugs, gambling, alcohol abuse.”

While many might view this state of affairs as a harbinger of America’s slide into moral and intellectual ruin, Shaffer sees it as an opportunity. “We have to make learning more fun, that’s the bottom line,” he says. “We have to make it more exciting.”

This week, Shaffer — the director of Harvard Medical School’s Division of Addictions — and the Mass Council on Compulsive Gambling announced that they have developed a new middle-school curriculum that will make math classes considerably more exciting.

The curriculum is called “Facing the Odds: The Mathematics of Gambling.” A sample worksheet includes such questions as “What are the chances of drawing a queen from a complete deck of shuffled cards?” and “If you are rolling a die, what is the probability that you will roll a six?” There is a section titled “The Probability of Winning the Lottery.”

“We’re creating a curriculum that will make young people active problem solvers rather than passive learners,” says Shaffer. “We’d like to move students in a positive direction.” Fair enough. But “Facing the Odds” does raise a few knotty questions of its own. For one thing, can instructing our kids in the finer points of card counting really be called a “positive direction”?

“If you’re suggesting that we’re going to encourage young people to gamble,” Shaffer says, sounding as though he might hang up the phone.

No, no, but —

“I’m not naive, and I do think we have to be careful,” he adds, “but we’re not moving into territory that young people are unaware of. Research shows that between 80 and 90 percent of young people gamble by the time they leave high school, and 50 percent gamble by the seventh grade.”

Yes, well, research also reveals that over 50 percent of eighth-graders have used alcohol. Yet you’re not likely to see “Little Johnny has downed a third of his 40-ouncer. How much malt liquor does he have left?” in a high-school math book. “The issue you’re raising is important,” says Shaffer, “but we don’t have examples like that. We don’t get into specific games.”

In fact, far from exacerbating gambling among students, Shaffer believes his curriculum will bring home the harsh statistical realities of the pursuit, and may actually serve to deter kids from placing bets. “For me, that will be gravy,” he says. “But I do think there will be some gravy.”

So far, Louisiana is the only state that has adopted Shaffer’s initiative, but he’s hoping others — Massachusetts included — will follow suit. “There is a growing interest,” he says. “Interest is growing.” Eventually, he hopes to cover the entire scientific spectrum — physics, biology, chemistry — using addiction as a theme. He admits, though, that this may take a while.

“I think,” Shaffer says, “we may be a little ahead of our time.”