Paul Lockhart

Topics: mathematics, learning, creativity, simplicity

• 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

• [O]ur present system of mathematics education is... a mechanism for... destroying a child's natural curiosity and love of pattern-making.

  — Paul Lockhart

• This rich and fascinating adventure of the imagination has been reduced to a sterile set of "facts" to be memorized and procedures to be followed.

  — Paul Lockhart

• [A] unifying aesthetic principle in mathematics... is..: simple is beautiful.

  — Paul Lockhart

• Math is not about following directions, it’s about making new directions.

  — Paul Lockhart

• I’m complaining about the lack of mathematics in ...mathematics classes.

  — Paul Lockhart

• [M]ath is—wondering, playing, amusing yourself with your imagination.

  — Paul Lockhart

• How can someone teach something that they themselves don't do? ...[M]ath teachers ...should ...understand what mathematics is, be good at it, and enjoy doing it

  — Paul Lockhart

• By concentrating on what, and leaving out why, mathematics is reduced to an empty shell.

  — Paul Lockhart

• [T]here is nothing as dreamy and poetic.., as radical, subversive, and psychedelic, as mathematics.

  — Paul Lockhart