23-24 | Reading Log 2024-2025
- Jay Adams
- Feb 14
- 2 min read
23: "A Mathematician's Lament" by Paul Lockhart. // This was a re-read, since this was one of the books that changed the way I teach math (and everything) over a decade ago. Lockhart does a fantastic job of putting language to many of the things I felt but couldn't articulate, both about my own memories as a math student and my experience as a math teacher. I do not exaggerate when I say I think reading this book is arguably more important to the teaching of math than reading actual math textbooks. In my dream scenario, each teacher would read this book and also provide a copy for each parent to explain what is about to happen to their kid and understand the end goal -- the creation of fully alive humans, invested in and confidently capable of their ability to make sense of the universe we find ourselves plopped into.
“Mathematics is the music of reason. To do mathematics is to engage in an act of discovery and conjecture, intuition and inspiration; to be in a state of confusion—not because it makes no sense to you, but because you gave it sense and you still don't understand what your creation is up to; to have a break-through idea; to be frustrated as an artist; to be awed and overwhelmed by an almost painful beauty; to be alive, damn it.”
24: "Pearl: A Graphic Novel" by Sherri L Smith // This one was a bit of a disappointment. I bought it for the library because I have some students who love graphic novels, and this one is about the...complicated...experience of Japanese-Americans in World War II. I've long been fascinated by the glossing-over most K12 American history classes do on this topic; I assume that's primarily because we don't particularly like to talk about our own warts, and often only do so when our hand is forced. Though it's beautifully illustrated, the whole story just felt...thin. Like the author had stretched two pages of content to twenty pages. Not terrible, not great. Just...fine.
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