To teach math well, “your argument has to be beautiful”
Paul Lockhart is a math teacher. Most likely, he’s the math teacher you wish your math teacher was. Instead of math being taught as the dry, encyclopedic collection of exotic symbols and equations that is so often is today, he would rather it served as a beautiful language by which we describe the world around us.
He wrote something to this effect years ago, called “Lockhart’s Lament.” In it, he says:
… if I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soulcrushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education.
You should read the whole thing.
He has an upcoming book called Measurement, one that he hopes will show people more of the beauty of math, and induce less phobia. Math is a truly beautiful language, and one that we could all serve to speak more fluently. I’ll be keeping my eyes out for this one.
Bonus: For more awesome mathemagic numerawesomeness, everyone should really be watching Vi Hart’s YouTube channel. Do it.