John Forbes Nash, the American mathematician died a couple days ago. Russell Crowe portrayed this extraordinarily gifted man in the movie "A Beautiful Mind." Nash made mathematical contributions in differential geometry, and partial differential equations. In part, his obituary said: "Nash's work has provided insight into the factors that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life." His passing led me to think about the upcoming generation of mathematicians in America.
With that in mind I have two links that I would like to pass on to you. The first deals with what Americans appear to value the most, brains or beauty. If the Miss America pageant is any indicator or measure of our priorities we would have to say that beauty wins. Though the contestants were not asked to solve even the simplest math problem, they were asked their opinion about teaching math in school. Should Math be Taught in Schools?
Given this progressive mindset of our beauty queens it is not surprising that there has been a major evolution of math education in our public school system.
The Evolution of Math in Schools
With that in mind I have two links that I would like to pass on to you. The first deals with what Americans appear to value the most, brains or beauty. If the Miss America pageant is any indicator or measure of our priorities we would have to say that beauty wins. Though the contestants were not asked to solve even the simplest math problem, they were asked their opinion about teaching math in school. Should Math be Taught in Schools?
Given this progressive mindset of our beauty queens it is not surprising that there has been a major evolution of math education in our public school system.
The Evolution of Math in Schools
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