Discussion: What is Math?

Today I said I wanted to talk about math.  That didn't go over particularly well - the kids responded with things like "math is boring," "I don't like assessments," and "no fractions!"

We digressed to talking about our favorite numbers, which went over a little better.  A couple of people liked the number "2" because it's a fun number to write.  "-12" was a favorite, as was "1".  The discussion got so animated that Renata had to get out a feather (for a talking stick) to keep order.

Then we went around the circle, with (almost) every kid giving an answer to the question "what is math?"  Some fun thoughts that came out of this:

• mathematicians don't even know that 1+1=2
  
• math is "random," and the only order there is the order we put on it
  
• math is about asking questions and answering them
  
• the word that comes to mind is "progress," because without math we couldn't have computers or cars
  
• do trees have anything to do with math?
• in ancient times, didn't people have to know "how far" they could throw a rock, so they could successfully hunt animals?

Along the way we talked about the complex numbers (mathematicians wanted a number that you could square to get -1, so they made one up and called it i) and about mathematical logic (using the notation x arrow y to abbreviate the statement "if it is raining, then there are clouds in the sky").