For most of my life, I have taught mathematics. This task has spanned audiences from young preschool children to graduate teachers and involved cultural and social settings from the inner city schools of New York to those of several developing countries of Southeast Asia. In all these ventures, I have been troubled by the perceived difficulties people associate with the learning and teaching of mathematics. My solution to this situation has been to try to “humanize” the learning of mathematics, that is, to more closely associate it with its historic and cultural origins and its purposes. In my books, I attempt to reveal these often unknown but fascinating aspects of the subject and to promote a clearer understanding of mathematics as a human endeavor, its uses and potentials.
- via Goodreads