Paul Lockhart Quotes

#1. Mathematics is the art of explanation.

Paul Lockhart

#2. ... That little narrative is an example of the mathematician's art: asking simple and elegant questions about our imaginary creations, and crafting satisfying and beautiful explanations. There is really nothing else quite like this realm of pure idea; it's fascinating, it's fun, and it's free!

Paul Lockhart

#3. The last thing they want to hear is that math is really about raw creativity and aesthetic sensitivity. Many

Paul Lockhart

#4. Efficiency and economy simply do not make good pedagogy.

Paul Lockhart

#5. I don't see how it's doing society any good to have so many members walking around with vague memories of algebraic formulas and geometric diagrams and clear memories of hating them.

Paul Lockhart

#6. Mental acuity of any kind comes from solving problems yourself, not from being told how to solve them.

Paul Lockhart

#7. Why don't we want our children to learn to do mathematics? Is it that we don't trust them, that we think it's too hard? We seem to feel that they are capable of making arguments and coming to their own conclusions about Napoleon. Why not about triangles?

Paul Lockhart

#8. [Math] curriculum is obsessed with jargon and nomenclature seemingly for no other purpose than to provide teachers with something to test the students on.

Paul Lockhart

#9. [Students] are being trained to ape arguments, not to intend them.

Paul Lockhart

#10. Teaching is not about information. It's about having an honest intellectual relationship with your students.

Paul Lockhart

#11. No mathematician in the world would bother making these senseless distinctions: 2 1/2 is a "mixed number " while 5/2 is an "improper fraction." They're EQUAL for crying out loud. They are the exact same numbers and have the exact same properties. Who uses such words outside of fourth grade?

Paul Lockhart

#12. SIMPLICIO: ... You have to [learn to] walk before you can run.
SALVIATI: No, you have to have something you want to run toward.

Paul Lockhart

#13. To say that math is important because it is useful is like saying that children are important because we can train them to do spiritually meaningless labor in order to increase corporate profits. Or is that in fact what we are saying?

Paul Lockhart

#14. The only thing I am interested in using mathematics for is to have a good time and to help others do the same.

Paul Lockhart

#15. Nevertheless, the fact is that there is nothing as dreamy and poetic, nothing as radical, subversive, and psychedelic, as mathematics.

Paul Lockhart

#16. Worse, the perpetuation of this "pseudo-mathematics," this emphasis on the accurate yet mindless manipulation of symbols, creates its own culture and its own set of values. Those

Paul Lockhart

#17. Doing mathematics should always mean finding patterns and crafting beautiful and meaningful explanations.

Paul Lockhart

#18. A good problem is something you don't know how to solve. That's what makes it a good puzzle and a good opportunity.

Paul Lockhart

#19. Mathematics is not a language, it's an adventure

Paul Lockhart

#20. If teaching is reduced to mere data transmission, if there is no sharing or excitement and wonder, if teachers themselves are passive recipients of information and not creators of new ideas, what hope is there for their students?

Paul Lockhart

#21. It is the story that matters not just the ending.

Paul Lockhart

#22. [Math is] not at all like science. There's no experiment I can do with test tubes and equipment and whatnot that will tell me the truth about a figment of my imagination. The only way to get at the truth about our imaginations is to use our imaginations ...

Paul Lockhart

#23. Mathematicians enjoy thinking about the simplest possible things, and the simplest possible things are imaginary.

Paul Lockhart