“Sadly, our present system of mathematics education is precisely this kind of nightmare. In fact, if I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being
done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soul-crushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education.”
I took a minor in Math because I enjoyed some aspect of it but completely agree with the quote. All my math courses were taught in a vacuum or worse, taking problems that bore no connection to situations I cared about. Over the years, as I explored various hobbies, I found mathematical ideas having application - that's when I truly made an effort to understand concepts fully. For my kid, I plan to introduce math concepts in the context of these hobbies .. if any one cares .. these are astronomy and radio.
http://www.maa.org/external_archive/devlin/devlin_03_08.html
“Sadly, our present system of mathematics education is precisely this kind of nightmare. In fact, if I had to design a mechanism for the express purpose of destroying a child’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making, I couldn’t possibly do as good a job as is currently being done— I simply wouldn’t have the imagination to come up with the kind of senseless, soul-crushing ideas that constitute contemporary mathematics education.”