Chapter 20 - In Conclusion

I would like to add a personal note, here at the end of these pages. I taught mathematics for 37 years at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. I have also taught workshops to teachers, and some summer workshops for children, for the Hawaii Department of Education. I have a number of sets of web pages on the Math Forum, and although I am retired, I still teach an online class for E-School, the online component of the Hawaii DOE. This class is called MatheMagic (the math in puzzles games and magic tricks).

In all of my 39 years of teaching, my goal has always been to help students to not only succeed in their mathematics classes, but to discover the beauty and relevance of math. I hope that I shed some light on this in my years of teaching classes, and in my web pages too. I believe that if all students are exposed to the interesting, beautiful, and creative side of mathematics, they will develop a lifelong passion for learning - not only in math but in all subjects, and all aspects of life. Curiosity, experiment, questioning, wondering, and contemplating; these are the values that we should hope to instill in our students.

So, in conclusion, I would like to thank you for reading these pages, and I hope they have given you ideas and offered choices, in your learning and in your teaching. And now, the final quotation with which I end these web pages is the following one, written by Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher:

The science of pure mathematics ... may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit."

Aloha from Hawaii,

Cathleen V. Sanders