As I Have Often Said, Electrons And

In No Other Branch Of Mathematics Is It So Easy For Experts To Blunder As In Probability Theory.

One Day, When I Was Doing Well In Class And Had Finished My Lessons, I Was Sitting There Trying To Analyze The Game Of Tic-tac-toe... The Teacher Came Along And Snatched My Papers On Which I Had Been Doodling... She Did Not Realize That Analyzing Tic-tac-toe Can Lead Into Dozens Of Non-trivial Mathematical Questions.

If Present Trends Continue, Our Country May Soon Find Itself Far Behind Many Other Nations In Both Science And Technology Nations Where, If You Inform Strangers That You Are A Mathematician, They Respond With Admiration And Not By Telling You How Much They Hated Math In School, And How They Sure Could Use You To Balance Their Checkbooks.

Indeed, There Is Something To Be Said For The Old Math When Taught By A Poorly Trained Teacher. He Can, At Least, Get Across The Fundamental Rules Of Calculation Without Too Much Confusion. The Same Teacher Trying To Teach New Math Is Apt To Get Across Nothing At All.

It Is Part Of The Pholosophic Dullness Of Our Time That There Are Millions Of Rational Monsters Walking About On Their Hind Legs, Observing The World Through Pairs Of Flexible Little Lenses, Periodically Supplying Themselves With Energy By Pushing Organic Substances Through Holes In Their Faces, Who See Nothing Fabulous Whatever About Themselves.