Growing mathematicians
“Discovery is the privilege of the child: the child who has no fear of being once again wrong, of looking like an idiot, of not being serious, of not doing things like everyone else.”
“Every child is an artist,” Picasso once wrote. “The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
Picasso’s problem is very real, and resolving it is very difficult. Virtuosity may not be the prize in any art, but technical incompetence is crippling. How do you inculcate the discipline needed to achieve technical mastery without suppressing the childlike wild-mindedness needed for original creative achievement?
And this delicate balancing act isn’t all there is to the problem, either. The fear of failure, to which even the most talented children are sometimes very susceptible, can be crippling, too.
The shape of things to come
In the near future, we’ll be adding many pages and links to this section of the Circle website that will offer the parents of mathematically curious children guidance on these (and other) issues. Please check back again soon.