Lynn Steen famous quotes

The lock-step approach of algebra, geometry, and then more algebra (but rarely any statistics) is still dominant in U. S. schools, but hardly anywhere else. This fragmented approach yields effective mathematics education not for the many but for the few primarily those who are independently motivated and who will learn under any conditions.
-- Lynn Steen

#School #Math #Yield

Mathematics, in the common lay view, is a static discipline based on formulas...But outside the public view, mathematics continues to grow at a rapid rate...the guid to this growth is not calculation and formulas, but an open ended search for pattern.
-- Lynn Steen

#Math #Views #Discipline

What humans do with the language of mathematics is to describe patterns... To grow mathematically children must be exposed to a rich variety of patterns appropriate to their own lives through which they can see variety, regularity, and interconnections.
-- Lynn Steen

#Children #Math #Patterns

What humans do with the language of mathematics is to describe patterns...
-- Lynn Steen

#Knowledge #Math #Patterns

Philosophically, mathematics is not a part of science. Mathematics studies patterns, science studies nature
-- Lynn Steen

#Patterns #Study #Mathematics

Mathematics is often defined as the science of space and number . . . it was not until the recent resonance of computers and mathematics that a more apt definition became fully evident: mathematics is the science of patterns.
-- Lynn Steen

#Numbers #Space #Patterns

For most problems found in mathematics textbooks, mathematical reasoning is quite useful. But how often do people find textbook problems in real life? At work or in daily life, factors other than strict reasoning are often more important. Sometimes intuition and instinct provide better guides; sometimes computer simulations are more convenient or more reliable; sometimes rules of thumb or back-of-the-envelope estimates are all that is needed.
-- Lynn Steen

#Real #People #Intuition

We believe that arithmetic as it has been taught in grade schools until quite recently has such a meagre intellectual content that the oft-noted reaction against the subject is not an unfortunate rebellion against a difficult subject, but a perfectly proper response to a preoccupation with triviality.
-- Lynn Steen

#Believe #School #Intellectual

I was a very awkward high schooler, especially in early high school. I had the middle part with a swoop, all that. It was the late ’90s!

God is subtle but he is not malicious.

The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.

Geometry is the foundation of all painting.

"The most powerful single idea in mathematics is the notion of a variable."

Our yesterday's to-morrow now is gone, And still a new to-morrow does come on. We by to-morrow draw out all our store, Till the exhausted well can yield no more.

The study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy

Be just: the unjust never prosper. Be valiant: die rather than yield. Be merciful: slay neither old men, children, nor women. Destroy neither fruit trees, grain, nor cattle. Keep your word, even to your enemies.

But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.

When we yield ourselves completely to God, He gives Himself completely to us.