Preserving Strength While Meeting Challenges Summary Report of a Workshop on Actions for the Mathematical Sciences (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Communicating Mathematics to the Public
Communicating Mathematics to the Public
Pages 14-19
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From page 14... ...
Within a generation, the mathematics community could splinter into a collection of cults arrogant, brilliant, self-righteous, and effectively divorced from mainstream issues, empathy, and support. At a time when a major research university declares its desire to jettison its graduate mathematics department, at a time when a math professor cum math popularizer writes a New York Times op-ed piece asserting that the roots of the suspected Unabomber's madness might be found in the fact that he was a mathematician, there should be no question that even the mathematics community is now asking itself how it should be perceived by America's mainstream media and institutions.
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From page 15... ...
To make matters even worse, mathematics remains one of the most poorly taught subjects in both K-12 and university education. Indeed, the nature of mathematics is such that one can have superb teachers for five or six consecutive years-but that one poor teaching experience can effectively undermine both the interest and the ability to further pursue the subject.
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From page 16... ...
Thus, math departments are being dis-intermediated by the very constituencies that should be looking to them for guidance and insight into the future of computation and analysis. The essential point is that mathematics may be an extraordinarily powerful and important intellectual discipline, tool, and adventure, but the mathematical community is not seen as particularly powerful or important in helping others acquire or appreciate math as a discipline, tool, and adventure.
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From page 17... ...
(However, a notable exception to this is how jargon seeps into everyday language-it's easy to pitch a story about how technical slang from computers enters colloquial speech, or how medical terminology from a hit show like "ER" becomes a linguistic meme. If certain math terms began to seep into the pop vocabulary, you can be sure there would be a New York Times story and a tongue-in-cheek CNN feature within 6 months.)
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From page 18... ...
Then again, the role mathematicians are playing in importing topological analysis to protein folding and molecular biology offers a magnificent example of how once-"pure" math can offer rich insights into the fundamental processes of nature. Is the real story here how mathematics illuminates nature or how nature gives insight into mathematics?
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From page 19... ...
that invite the best mathematicians around to give accessible tutorials on major math themes. The goal should be not to produce faux literacy but rather to promote a conceptual appreciation of why that particular aspect of math warrants further study.
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