Abstract
This chapter is based on my closing remarks at the colloquium that gave rise to this book. But before I get to the main purpose of the chapter, I would like to make a comment triggered by one of the contributions to our closing discussion. Lesley Lee gave a passionate, and very moving, plea that we share the algebra culture more widely. Induction to it, she feels, shouldn’t be restricted to a minority, depriving whole chunks of the general population of the sort of intense pleasure, of fun, of achievement, that all of us were probably fortunate enough to experience.1 While I empathize very strongly with the general sentiment, I also feel sure that there will always be people who will resist attempts to get them to join the algebra culture. I don’t deplore their resistance; I expect it, even welcome it. There are many other worthy human activities for people to enjoy and profit from. A person can have a very good and useful life without knowing any algebra at ail-any mathematics, even—just as I have managed to get along without any Latin and Greek, and without ever painting in oils, playing football, or learning to meditate.
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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Wheeler, D. (1996). Backwards and Forwards: Reflections on Different Approaches to Algebra. In: Bernarz, N., Kieran, C., Lee, L. (eds) Approaches to Algebra. Mathematics Education Library, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1732-3_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1732-3_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-4168-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1732-3
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