CHAPTER 42: Teaching Mathematics for Peace

Although mathematics education is important to me, I consider the quest for peace to be my vocation. I can work at bringing peace to my world through mathematics education. I recognize that my goal of a peaceful world is likely unattainable in my lifetime, but perhaps it is the mathematician in me that is content to approach the inaccessible and the infinite.

The idea of relating the teaching of mathematics to an interest in peace is strange to many people. I can tell by the looks on the faces of those whom I share my passions with. To many people, mathematics is culturally and socially neutral—sterile. I am quite familiar with this view of mathematics because it was my own attitude as well when I started my mathematics teaching career.