Alex Bellos over at the Guardian recently wrote an inspired article about the love of maths and it’s place in our schools.
As he points out, maths is nearly always justified to learners by pointing out how useful it is: how it will help gain employment, how it helps them with everyday life. Of course, many children aren’t particularly satisfied with answers of that nature… those ideas are too far in the future; and besides (as we all secretly know) there are many, many aspects of ‘school maths’ that have little or no application beyond the classroom – if you’re not a teacher when did you last talk about a cuboid or rotational symmetry, for example?
However, Bellos goes further: “…maths should also be studied for the same reasons we study Shakespeare - it is our intellectual and cultural heritage… it makes us more creative and gives us a deeper understanding of he way things really are.”
Find the full article at the Guardian.co.uk. You will also see why Bellos thinks maths is so enjoyable as he takes you on a short tour of Pi, circles, Everest, Numbers, Humour and Money.
Pingback: Maths Meets Athletics | mathsticks extra