A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form

by Paul Lockhart

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. —ANTOINE DE SAINT EXUPÉRY

Algebra is not about daily life, it’s about numbers and symmetry—and this is a valid pursuit in and of itself:

The one about mankind’s struggle with the problem of measuring curves; about Eudoxus and Archimedes and the method of exhaustion;

What other subject is routinely taught without any mention of its history, philosophy, thematic development, aesthetic criteria, and current status? What other subject shuns its primary sources—beautiful works of art by some of the most creative minds in history—in favor of third-rate textbook bastardizations?

Teaching is not about information. It’s about having an honest intellectual relationship with your students. It requires no method, no tools, and no training. Just the ability to be real. And if you can’t be real, then you have no right to inflict yourself upon innocent children.

Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.