''A Mathematician's Lament'', often referred to informally as Lockhart's Lament, is a short book on
mathematics education by Paul Lockhart, originally a research mathematician at
Brown University
Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
and U.C. Santa Cruz, and subsequently a math teacher at
Saint Ann's School in
Brooklyn,
New York City for many years. This strongly worded opinion piece is organized into two parts. The first part, "Lamentation", criticizes the way mathematics is typically taught in American schools and argues for an aesthetic,
intuitive
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognitio ...
, and problem-oriented approach to teaching. The second part, "Exultation", gives specific examples of how to teach
mathematics as an art.
Background
This book was developed from a 25-page essay that was written in 2002, originally circulated in typewritten manuscript copies, and subsequently published by
Keith Devlin on his online column for the
Mathematical Association of America
The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) is a professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure a ...
's
webzine ''MAA Online''.
[Devlin, Keith (2009). ''Foreword'', p. 9 of ]
Quotes
"The first thing to understand is that mathematics is an art. The difference between math and the other arts, such as music and painting, is that our culture does not recognize it as such."
"Other math courses may hide the beautiful bird, or put it in a cage, but in geometry class, it is openly and cruelly tortured."
References
Further reading
* Paul Lockhart, ''Measurement'' (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012).
*------. ''Arithmetic'' (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2017).
External links
Lockhart's Lament the essay which prefigured ''A Mathematician's Lament'', by Paul Lockhart
about the earlier essay, by
Keith Devlin
Books about mathematics education
Books about philosophy of mathematics
2009 non-fiction books
Bellevue Literary Press books
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