Opinions Here are a few answers1 to the question. (I have highlighted aspects of the answer that I believe are what make mathematics difficult.) First, teachers. A lot of elementary school teachers hate math and almost none of them ever do any math. That is, they don’t try to prove theorems or solve puzzles or... Continue Reading →

No study of mathematics can be consideredcomplete without attention to its history. Junaid Mubeen - Mathematics. Education. Innovation. In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill & Ted are confronted by Mr. Ryan, their history teacher, about their not being able to graduate because they are failing his class. Mr. Ryan: Listen guys, don't forget, tomorrow.... Continue Reading →

In the movie Animal House, when Lawrence "Pinto" Kroger and Kent "Flounder" Dorfman walk past the statue of Emil Faber, founder of Faber College, we see that his motto is "KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD". Breadth and Depth of Knowledge Knowledge is good, but what about understanding and wisdom? (The editorial, Purpose of this Website, elucidates the... Continue Reading →

I couldn’t see how anyone could be educated by this self-propagating system in which people pass exams, and teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything.Richard Feynman Standardized testing is a necessary evil. Wikipedia2 defines a necessary evil as "an evil that someone believes must be done or accepted because it is necessary to achieve a better outcome—especially because... Continue Reading →

After falling down the rabbit hole and entering the garden, Alice encounters The Mad Hatter, The Dormouse, and The March Hare having a tea party. The tea party is characterized by switching places on the table at any given time, making short, personal remarks, asking unanswerable riddles and reciting nonsensical poetry. The encounter with these three characters is... Continue Reading →

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” ~ Sherlock Holmes in A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle In "Convergence", Numb3rs S2E7, Meghan Reeves and Charlie Epps have the following conversation. MEGAN: Wouldn't that much data make it harder to find what you're looking for? CHARLIE: The opposite. More... Continue Reading →

"It is better to solve one problem five different ways, than to solve five problems one way." ~ George Polya Many years ago I had an instructor who used to read the "magic" tricks from The Mad Book Of Magic And Other Dirty Tricks1 during class to break the monotony. The Incomparable "Traveling Watch" Trick... Continue Reading →

When I was in high school, I enjoyed math and wanted to pursue it as a career. I also felt a lot like Alice, I almost received the same response as she did from the Cheshire Cat when I asked the guidance counselor, math teachers and others what math classes to take, what opportunities were... Continue Reading →