[mquander]

I agree completely, but they rarely get around to demonstrating why it is beautiful, so all the students learn is why it's not practical.

Note that the public school approach doesn't work much better for poetry or literature. Precious few high schoolers graduate with a love of reading.

[zimbabwe]

Just to be certain, have all of you read Lockhart's Lament? Because it argues the case for teaching math more beautifully than I can.

http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf