A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form

“One of the best critiques of current K-12 mathematics education I have ever seen, written by a first-class research mathematician who elected to devote his teaching career to K-12 education.” ―Keith Devlin, NPR’s “Math Guy”

A brilliant research mathematician reveals math to be a creative art form on par with painting, poetry, and sculpture, and rejects the standard anxiety-producing teaching methods used in most schools today. Witty and accessible, Paul Lockhart’s controversial approach will provoke spirited debate among educators and parents alike, altering the way we think about math forever.

Paul Lockhart is the author of Arithmetic, Measurement, and A Mathematician’s Lament. He has taught mathematics at Brown University, University of California, Santa Cruz, and to K-12 level students at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York.

Paul Lockhart dropped out of college after one semester to devote himself exclusively to math. Based on his own research he was admitted to Columbia University where he received his PhD. The author of Arithmetic, Measurement, and A Mathematician’s Lament, he has taught mathematics at Brown University, University of California, Santa Cruz, and to K-12 level students at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York.