UC Berkeley math professor Edward Frenkel suggests that schools overhaul the way they teach math, because its self-limiting to the basics never allows students to get into some of its most fascinating areas.
The teaching method, he says, is set in stone (and may very well have been; we learn how to solve quadratic equations the same way people did in the 9th century) and bears as much relationship to the true art and beauty of mathematics as a painted fence does to a great work of art.
Professor Frenkel is, of course, predisposed towards seeing beauty and art in math being as how he's a mathematician and all, so he may be overstating some of his case.
On the other hand, considering the blunt force neurotrauma that was high school math class, what could it hurt to try something new?
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