How a Polymath Mastered Math—and So Can You by James Taranto

How a Polymath Mastered Math—and So Can You by James Taranto

By trial and error, Ms. Oakley had learned how to learn: “The higher I went, it started to gradually make more and more sense.” Her language experience proved valuable. “The way you learn intensively for a language is very similar to learning well in math and science,” she says. But that isn’t the predominant view among American educators. “In learning math and science through K-12, it’s long been held that practice and repetition will kill your creativity,” she says. “One mistake we make in the school system is we emphasize understanding. But if you don’t build those neural circuits with practice, it’ll all slip away. You can understand out the wazoo, but it’ll just disappear if you’re not practicing with it.”

Wow! She nails it! And her only qualification is that she has taught herself how to learn. Why don't professional educators know this?