MMW Summaries (TED Talks & Article):

*** - personal notes

underline - important points/remarks

A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart

Intro
• The author expressed satire criticisms towards math education and contrasts to music and
painting being traditionally regarded as an ‘art form’.
• “Educators, school systems, and the state are the ones in charge”
• ‘Expressing yourself’ is considered ‘way-out-there’ or abstract.
• The author argues that the current math education system is bound to ruin a child’s natural
curiosity and love of pattern-making.
• “The only people who understand and acknowledge what is wrong are most often blamed
and least often heard: the students.”
Mathematics and Culture
• We need to understand that mathematics is an art
• The difference between math and other art forms is that our own culture does not recognize
it as such.
• “Nobody has the faintest idea what it is that mathematicians do”
• Easily categorized into ‘poetic dreamers’ and ‘rational thinkers’. Math is of course placed in
the latter category
• “Mathematics is the purest of the arts, as well as the most misunderstood”
• G.H. Hardy’s description of math/mathematicians: “A mathematician is a maker of patterns.
They are made with ideas.”
• “Aesthetic principle in mathematics: Simple is beautiful”. “The simplest possible things are
imaginary”
• Being able to use our imagination in itself is hard work (when applied, in the context of math)
• What Mathematics is supposed to feel like: Being able to ask simple questions about our
imaginary creations and crafting satisfying and beautiful explanations
• “Math is reduced to a sterile set of ‘facts’ to be memorized and procedures to be followed”
Even the pain and frustration that comes with a creative act is omitted.
***With creativity there is also hardships and trials
• “It’s not about formulas, and memorizing interesting facts. That’s fine in context, and has its
place. It indeed helps you to create richer and more nuanced works. But by removing the
creative process and leaving only the results of that process, you guarantee that no one will
have any real engagement with the subject.”
***Author made it clear that he isn’t opposed to the nature of math’s technicalities when
applied in proper context, the presence of formulas but rather the lesser to zero emphasis on
math’s real nature: being able to challenge creativity
***Mathematics vs Math as a subject (how it is imposed in schools)
• “Concentrating on what, and leaving out the why, mathematics is reduced to an empty shell.”
• “If you deny students the opportunity to engage, to be wrong, to be creatively frustrated, you
deny them mathematics itself”
• “The cultural problem self-perpetuates”
***Perceptions towards math are passed down. From our parents, our teachers. Even teachers
who have taught are parents and present teachers. A domino effect
• “Math is mostly viewed by the culture as some sort of tool for science and technology”
***The author presented two individuals debating over this topic namely Simplicio and Salviati.
These individuals are characters from Galileo’s book: The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
World Systems. Simplicio presents conservative and traditional views (Opposing reform) while
Salviati is a modernists and reflects Galileo’s views (Fight for reform)
 • Is the author claiming that math offers no use in society? No. They are merely suggesting
that just because something has practical consequences, does not mean that’s all to it or is
about. It should not be the sole focus or purpose of teaching and learning it.
• “Members of society walk around with vague memories of algebraic formulas and clear
memories of hating them”
• “Math should be taught as art for art’s sake because the useful aspects will follow naturally”

Mathematics in School
***The proponents of the math subjects themselves do not actually understand math
• Students should be given enough time to make discoveries. Teach them flexibly.
• The idea of mastery in certain techniques is normal, but should be learned in context.
***Author acknowledges that math is also hard to teach
• Teachers should enjoy doing math for them to properly teach it
• Teachers are also ‘passive recipients’ of information, ‘victims’ themselves of the system.
• “Teaching means openness and honesty, an ability to share excitement”
• “We learn things because they interest us now not because they might be useful later”
• Building children’s foundations and sense of numbers through games, puzzles, and
especially deductive reasoning. They will be more active and creative vs presenting them
with notation and technique
• Creativity, history, context, and philosophies of math should co-exist with notations and
technique. There should be a balance.
***Author argues the complete absence of art in the math curriculum
• Current math education is deemed to promote precise and logical thinking but the effects
beg to differ. It dulls the mind
***Yes, one can be proficient through rote memorization. But might only be tied down to given
formulas, no creative breakthroughs or deeper relationship with math as a concept.
• “The most valuable skill for a scientist or engineer is being able to think creatively or
independently”

The Mathematics Curriculum

• Almost everyone has accepted that the standard math curriculum in schools is synonymous
with math itself
• Ladder myth - math is arranged as a sequence of subjects, being advanced than the
previous. “It is a false image of the subject”
• Training students to express information in an unnecessarily complicated form
• Teachers should be able to talk about math in their own voice, in a natural and spontaneous
way. This proves that they understand it
***Author made it clear that he does not blame the math teachers. There are also a product of
the culture
• Training students to explain and prove notations in a complicated, bureaucratic manner
makes them doubt their own intuition. (e.g. Page 19) vs composing an enjoyable argument
naturally
***Author has also made it clear that there is a place for formal proof in mathematics, but not
as an introduction of a student to mathematical argument. Always according to context.
• “In fact it is the soul of mathematics to carry out such a dialogue with one’s own proof’
***Author has made it clear that they aren’t against terminologies, it's the unnecessary
complication and application of the said terms.
***Logical rigor is still important and acknowledged but is often misplaced
• “A proof should be an epiphany”
***A grasp and actual understanding of the problem, being able to produce your own argument
in your own way
• “The spirit of the argument has been buried under confusing formalism”
***Uniformity will eventually kill free thinking (if applied at all times/every time)
 • Math is about removing obstacles to our intuition and keeping simple things simple.
• Regardless of formality or how notations are presented, it is important that the idea comes
across
• Teachers and students are passive participants in the math subject. They follow a pre-
existing system. Main problem is that it is boring, not engaging.
• A free-form math subject may be novel but it is the exact nature of mathematics.
• An endless cycle of innocent teachers inflicting damage upon innocent students

Insπre: Rethinking the Purpose of Math Education by Tisha Jones

• Thoughts that might be associated with math: Anxiety, fear, old memories. A lot feel the
exact same way.
• There is a lot of strong opinions on how math should be taught.
• Algorithms are the 'floor and ceiling of math'. When solving problems, it just requires you to
complete the steps. Not allowing flexibility and creativity. Doesn't require actually
understanding the steps that you do.
• Algorithms are made for people who know how to do math. Not for kids learning how to do
math.
• Math is ‘being able to make sense of the numbers’
• Numbers are more than just symbols on a page. They are real quantities. Operations are
actions that help us solve real-life problems.
• Proof that there was a variety of strategies from the kids. Their own ideas made sense to
them.
• Math is about thinking. The frustrations were necessary.
• We learn the most when things are hard. Persevering through frustrations. Expecting
mistakes but using them to figure out your next steps.
• Respecting differences with your peers. Kids learn that there is more than one way to solve a
problem.
• Not just math skills. Skills that you want your relationships in real-life to have. Life skills.
• Math should be recognized to have a real purpose.

Mathematics is the sense you never knew you had by Eddie Woo
***Speaker admits to having a poor relationship with math before. An outsider's perspective
***Speaker's academic life was dominated by humanities
• “Being a teacher wasn't about my love for a particular subject. It was about having a
personal impact on the lives of young people."
• He did not struggle, but instead persevered with math.
• He gave similar sentiments towards math as a subject with music. Music to him felt like
torture, dry and joyless, only engaged with because someone else forced him to.
• Slowly but surely his mind changed, because he was finally engaged in a creative process.
• Perspective towards math was all about rute learning and abstract problems that did not
mean anything.
• Math is practical. Not just about finding answers, but about learning to ask the right
questions.
• Forming new ways to see problems. Combining insight with imagination.
• 'Mathematics is a sense' - a sense for patterns, relationships and logical connections.
• Mathematical reality: Woven into the universe. Patterns in nature, the real-world
• Humans are pattern creators: Artists, musicians
• "Music is the joy that people feel when they are counting but don't know it"
• He demonstrates wonders and application of math aesthetically in the real-world.: e.g. The
golden ratio, fractals
***Pure passion and substance is displayed from the teacher. He actually loves math
***Fresh and fascinating perspective view of math