Keith Devlin ("The Math Guy on NPR's Weekend Edition) will write the foreword. We will seek endorsements from the major popular math authors, Ivars Peterson, Martin Gardner, Ian Stewart among them. The original essay has already gotten enormous response since Keith Devlin posted it on his column on the Mathematical Association of America site. It's controversial--and controversy sells books! But even those who are critical take Lockhart seriously. His passion and commitment to his subject are impressive and sincere. And his skills as a teacher are well known by the parents and students at St. Ann's, one of NYC's most prestigious progressive private schools. Popular mathematics is a strong category and because of its polemical approach this book will surely get attention. This is further demonstrated by journalists dedicated to covering math at Wall Street Journal, Science, Science News, Washington Post, New York Times, and others whom we will be contacting about the book. RTLR Ad Will market to members lists of Math Associations.
Paul Lockhart became interested in mathematics when he was 14 (outside the classroom, he points out). He dropped out of college after one semester to devote himself exclusively to math. Based on his own research he was admitted to Columbia, received a PhD, and has taught at major universities. Since 2000 he has dedicated himself to "subversively" teaching grade-school math.
“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”“Gorgeous. . . . Lockhart is passionate, contagiously so.” —Los Angeles Times“Searing and pointed. . . . An easy, thoughtful, and entertaining read. . . . [Lockhart’s] passion makes the critique compelling.” —Notices of the American Mathematical Society“Provides a fresh way of thinking about math, and education in general, that should inspire practical applications in the classroom and at home.” —Publishers Weekly“A Mathematician’s Lament is a fascinating argument that anyone interested in mathematics education should read. I promise that they will enjoy the experience, whether they agree with all that Lockhart writes or not.” —Bryan Bunch, author of The Kingdom of Infinite Number: A Field Guide“This brief and elegant celebration of mathematics is a charming rant against the way you and I learned the subject. Is painting just coloring in numbered regions? Is the sunset just a list of wavelengths and a compass setting? No more, Lockhart argues, than mathematics is just definitions and formulas. To put back play and joy in our mathematics classrooms, he shows, all we need do is restore the real mathematics.” —Robert P. Crease, author of The Great Equations: Breakthroughs in Science from Pythagoras to Heisenberg“Lockhart has written an important, and eloquent, lamentation and exultation: he laments about the state of math education today, but exults in the hope that teachers might be inspired to invite students to experience mathematics as the exciting ‘poetry of ideas’ that it truly is.” —Barry Mazur, Gerhard Gade University Professor, Harvard University and author of Imagining Numbers (particularly the square root of minus fifteen)
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