by Robert Krulwich
Vi Hart calls herself "a recreational mathemusician currently living on Long Island." She talks faster than a machine gun, loves math, and draws like a dream. Her newest video: "Doodling in Math Class: Snakes + Graphs" is eye-popping.
[See link above for video]
Also, on www.youtube.com, she has several videos on recreational mathematics.
You may have noticed she's a touch angry about how math is taught in America. She thinks it can be done better — more intuitively, joyously.
So does Paul Lockhart, a math teacher at Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn, NY. A few years ago, he wrote an essay, "A Mathematician's Lament," that's been all over the internet. I just discovered it. Here's how it starts:
A musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds himself in a society where music education has been made mandatory. "We are helping our students become more competitive in an increasingly sound-filled world." Educators, school systems, and the state are put in charge of this vital project. Studies are commissioned, committees are formed, and decisions are made — all without the advice or participation of a single working musician or composer.
Since musicians are known to set down their ideas in the form of sheet music, these curious black dots and lines must constitute the "language of music." It is imperative that students become fluent in this language if they are to attain any degree of musical competence; indeed, it would be ludicrous to expect a child to sing a song or play an instrument without having a thorough grounding in music notation and theory. Playing and listening to music, let alone composing an original piece, are considered very advanced topics and are generally put off until college, and more often graduate school.
----- (skipping) [See link for more of Paul Lockhart's excellent essay.]
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