Math+

RECREATIONAL MATH

Recreational Math????

Recreational whaaaa????

Is there really such a thing?  Why in the world would there be such a thing?  

Even if you have never heard the term recreational math before, some guesses of what it might be probably immediately pop into your head.  So, first, let us establish what recreational math is NOT:  

This is not the type of math that is forced on kids (often by parents) in hopes of bettering their chances of getting into a good college.

This is not the type of math that parents (and teachers) use to drill and kill kids into mastery of arithmetic skills.

This it not the type of math that you gets you a good grade or even extra credit.

In my experience, if you have a worthy intellectual pursuit, people will want to tackle it.  It’s almost like an intellectual “fight or flight” instinct.  If a person feels that they have the ability to access a problem and also feels that it is a good challenge for them, they will be instinctively drawn to it.  They don’t need the threat or incentive of grades.  They don’t need parents lurking or teachers hovering.  They will do it for the thrill of the hunt, for the feeling of elation upon conquering a worthy adversary.  A rich, worthy problem brings out the competitive juices in people..  Like a good puzzle, athletic competition, games, and contests do.  It elicits feelings not commonly associated with mathematics.

A quote from the article “The Importance of Recreational Math” reads:

“Indeed, a paper this year in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics points out that recreational math can be used to awaken mathematics-related “joy,” “satisfaction,” “excitement” and “curiosity” in students, which the educational policies of several countries (including China, India, Finland, Sweden, England, Singapore and Japan) call for in writing.”

Unfortunately, generations of math teachers have, in my opinion, “broken” the subject of math and made it into a dry, robotic, complex, formulaic, joy-less, exclusive subject that generations of students have come to hate.  At its very essence, math is a journey in critical thinking, finding patterns, and figuring out how world works (like how people have come to perceive science).  Math should not be reduced to monotonous worksheets, stress-inducing tests, formula memorizing, laborious problem sets, and the dreaded flashcards.  

The article “The Importance of Recreational Math” explores various games and brain teasers where the “qualifying characteristics are that no advanced mathematical knowledge like calculus be required, and the activity engage enough of the same logical and deductive skills used in mathematics.”  Rather than being an activity that has the same format and gets easier with repetition, these “disparate puzzles require…  different, inventive techniques to crack.”  I believe that this is the way that math was meant to be explored and learned.  This is how people come to experience beauty, joy, and exhilaration via an intellectual pursuit.