The biggest reason I wanted to be a mathematician
is that the concept of certainty is not as clear in any other field as
it is in mathematics by Ali Kayaspor, Math Teacher published in However Mathematics…
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Albert Einstein’s office at Princeton, photographed on the day of his death
Photo: Ralph Morse
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At first, I wanted to be a painter, but after a
while, the arguments over the concept of excellent painting and lousy
painting changed my mind. I was also interested in philosophy at one
point in time, but again, I saw that the concepts in philosophy
are too obscure, difficult to judge, and take years to prove whether
they are true or false. I felt that it is not even clear what philosophy
is all about. One day I asked our
neighbor’s daughter what they were doing at school, and she said they
were focusing on proving some stuff. I was puzzled, so she added, “we
are trying to figure out what is for what.” There was only one truth in
math, and it utterly attracted me. For me, it was breathtakingly good.
With the help of certainty in mathematics, people understand and explore life, the universe, and its rules. In other words, in mathematics, instead of what is right, you realize for what reason it is correct.
If you are trying to understand the logic for your creation, and the
universe, nothing can be more profound or more philosophical than it.
To become a professional mathematician, one has to enjoy mathematics...
We, as educators,
should take steps to build better quality schools as much as possible.
But first, we have to recognize the problem(s). It is only when we
realize the problem; something can be done to fix it. The schools to be
built should be completely independent of the old education system and
still provide high-quality education. However, it is challenging to
achieve this because there will be barriers due to bureaucracy from the
state. What is called the state is, unfortunately, a structure against any original idea. The
state wants everyone to do the same thing. Since the state does not
trust anyone other than itself, it judges students through standardized
exams. In many societies, the most educated people are found in the
universities, but they operate under the state. Ruling the universities
means that the state does not fully trust these institutions. The state
should be open to the ideas of creative individuals. Even if the plan
fails, it must be tolerant because the project could be one of many that
work did not, but if it were to be successful, I would make a big
difference. For example, if an institute which is
good in mathematics institute educates 20 good students every year and
does it for 30 years, it will produce 600 good mathematicians. If we
assume that these 600 mathematicians had students as well, it means that
it has produced a couple of thousand good mathematicians, it would be
an ideal plan to make the world a more beautiful place. The so-called state has to allow young people to be educated in different ways...
Mathematics is a purely mental thing, it is abstract, but it is not something that people make up because they are bored. Mathematics also has aesthetic beauty. A life in which one out of every three numbers was prime would be much easier and tremendously dull. Mathematics is not just about numbers. In mathematics, A’s, B’s, X’s, and Y’s are more natural than numbers. Mathematics is the ability to see a problem and symbolize it and cast it on paper. Mathematics is not the art of finding the truth, but the art of finding out why it is the truth.
In ancient Greece, at the door of a school opened by Plato, it was inscribed, “Let no one ignorant of geometry enter.” In today’s modern schools, I think we should alter it slightly to: “Let no one ignorant of geometry leave.”
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Source: Medium
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