A SEED TO A VIEW
Mathematicians so seldom know
The trees of knowledge from seeds they sow
Past lives forgotten and the future a mystery
Making lives count, their deeds can make history
So make your life count with love as your measure
And kids will climb trees with views they will treasure.
© 2013 www.jonathancrabtree.com/mathematics/a-seed-to-a-view/
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Please feel welcome to copy and share.
All I ask is you keep the web address with the poem.
Thank you Miss Morgan. Thank you Tim Nolan. Thank you Miss Collins. Thank you Mr McKeracher
So what prompted this poem?
Long ago I posted a discussion on LinkedIn captioned
First Proof That Infinitely Many Prime Numbers Come in Pairs
Deep in the conversation, I wrote a note of thanks to Colin McAllister who had provided additional links and updates "If resolved, who knows what this may lead to in 50 years time... "
Colin then left a comment "Jonathan, you have inadvertently answered Marsigit's question "Do you have any ideas to differentiate between adults and younger math?" The young must prepare themselves to deal with the mathematics of 50 years hence."
As a person interested in the history of mathematics and the evolution of ideas, I know Euler's solution to the 'Seven bridges of Konigsberg puzzle' routes all internet traffic. I know Brahmagupta's mathematics of 628 CE is used in modern cryptography and papers are still being written about this!
So who knows where the seeds we plant in mathematics or in the minds of children may lead?
As a child, I failed mathematics, repeated a year of school and generally felt pretty bad about math. Yet strangely, maybe math should come with a health warning! Solving puzzles is so much fun! Mathematics can be truly creative and that is the surprise that so many people don't realise.
Discovery is addictive!