So our fearless leader, Mrs. MacWilliams, accepted my challenge to enroll in Stanford's FREE MOOC class, entitled "How To Learn Math." It is led by the world-renowned author and educator, Jo Boaler, and IT. IS. FANTASTIC. Way to go, Mrs. MacWilliams!
At one point, she interviews Sebastian Thrun. He isn't exactly a household name, but he should be.
You see, Sebastian Thrun is an amazing dude. He is credited with the invention of self-driving cars, is a VP at Google, and has lead the development of Google Glass (those funky new glasses that you can wear and record stuff just by blinking). He's also the CEO of Udacity, an online course provider. He speaks beautifully about the role of intuition in mathematics.
I was particularly struck by the following quotation, which gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it:
"Math to me is just a training course to be a citizen, how to think in the world. A world of numbers, of people, of relationships, of time and space, and so on. So if you can get people that get that feeling of how to deal with these things and empower them and take away the fear, we win."
I couldn't have said it better myself. If you have a yearning for learning, sign up for the course yourself. It's FREE. It takes fewer than TWO hours to complete. It's STANFORD. Good luck!
https://class.stanford.edu/courses/Education/EDUC115-S/Spring2014/about
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