Ellenberg on NPR

In an early June interview, Jordan Ellenberg told NPR's Robert Siegel how he believes math courses should be taught and what sets math apart from other school subjects.

Some excerpts of the conversation:

It's a strange thing...to have the main goal of math education be to replicate the functions of a five-dollar calculator. That's a weird thing for us to have as our highest desire for our math students.

You should always have skepticism about your own computations, whether they're mathematical computations or moral computations or whatever they are.

Mathematical knowledge is something the student can create and experience directly. It doesn't rely on authority.

Listen.