The kind of mathematics foisted on children in schools is not meaningful, fun, or even very useful. This does not mean that an individual child cannot turn it into a valuable and enjoyable personal game. For some the game is scoring grades; for others it is outwitting the teacher and the system. For many, school math is enjoyable in its repetitiveness, precisely because it is so mindless and dissociated that it provides a shelter from having to think about what is going on in the classroom. But all this proves is the ingenuity of children. It is not a justifications for school math to say that despite its intrinsic dullness, inventive children can find excitement and meaning in it.


Chapter 2, Mathophobia: The Fear of Learning - Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (1980)

Seymour Papert Quotes

The kind of mathematics foisted on children in schools is not meaningful, fun, or even very useful. This does not mean that an individual child...

The kind of mathematics foisted on children in schools is not meaningful, fun, or even very useful. This does not mean that an individual child...

The kind of mathematics foisted on children in schools is not meaningful, fun, or even very useful. This does not mean that an individual child...

The kind of mathematics foisted on children in schools is not meaningful, fun, or even very useful. This does not mean that an individual child...