Why Math Class Is Boring—and What to Do About It

Math is often seen as something you get or you don't. Most of us sit in class feeling like we don't. The fault is not with the subject itself but rather with the way we teach it. Mathematician Paul Lockhart wrote a 25-page essay titled "A Mathematician's Lament", wherein he states that students who feel that their mathematics classes are boring are right.

The true nature of math is art. Unfortunately, we wrongly teach it in a way that would just as easily ruin any other art.

Consider what music or painting would look like if we treat it like the typical math curriculum.

• What if music education was all about theory, dots and lines that make up the language of music? What if playing and listening to music was put off until college?
• Or, what if art students had to spend years only studying paints and brushes? Then they do pre-paint-by numbers to prepare them for the main paint-by number sequence. From there, only the students who know their colours and brushes get to actually paint.