“Across the globe there is a love affair between children and the digital technologies. They love the computers, they love the phones, they love the game machines, and – most relevantly here – their love translates into a willingness to do a prodigious quantity of learning. The idea that this love might be mobilized in […]
“Throughout this essay, I use the word “mathematics” as a stand in for all disciplines. I use the word “math” to refer to the largely obsolete stuff they teach in schools.” Papert, S. (2006). After How Comes What. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (Vol. 2, pp. 581-586). Cambridge:
“Math really is boring for most people because it is not connected with their interests and their fantasies. You can’t make it part of your dreams.” Papert, Seymour (2005) “A conversation with Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky, and Alan Kay,” by David Kestenbaum. In Communications of the ACM Volume 48, Number 1 (2005), Pages 35-38. Retrieved
“Certain notions of mathematics are not sufficiently embedded in the culture for children to learn in their natural way, so they come to school to learn them. Once children are in school, we try to impose mathematics on them in much the same way it was imposed on us: we begin by making them work
March 3, 2014 – We’re back! Read More »
“In Mindstorms (Papert, 1980), I asked (choosing one out of a vast number of possible examples) why the quadratic equation of the parabola is included in the mathematical knowledge every educated citizen is expected to know. Saying that it is “good math” is not enough reason: The curriculum includes only a minute sliver of the
“Instead of making kids learn math let’s make math kids will learn.” Papert, S. (1996). “An Exploration in the Space of Mathematics Educations.” International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 95-123.
“What they teach in school, I like to call, “math,” as opposed to mathematics. Mathematics is one of the great jewels of achievement of the human mind. Math is a bunch of boring stuff that you make kids do with pencils and square papers and filling in numbers. There is no relation.” Jump to 19
“Putting flash cards on the screen is not a new way of learning math. It is a polished-up version of the old ways and promotes to greater heights their worst and most mechanical features. Moreover, it is often done in a spirit that I see as dangerously dishonest: Disguising flash cards as a game introduces
“So a lot of school math was useful once upon a time, but we now have calculators and so we don’t need it. But people say that surely we don’t want to be dependent on the calculator. To which I say, “Look at this thing, these eyeglasses, that make a dramatic difference to my life
“For many children traditional school is a very dangerous place because you can be humiliated, embarrassed – scared of being found out that you don’t know how to do something. Whereas with the Turtle, you can play with it by yourself. It’s okay that you don’t understand it because you found out that you didn’t