Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The importance of creativity in education

When I started working for Univac in the 1960s, I met a few musicians who had become computer programmers. I think I thought of it as the ability to manipulate symbols.

Decades later, I codified it as mathematics is the science of relationships and music is the art of relationships.

I was delighted to read the following in Ed Raymond's column in the Reader Weekly last week:

"Some day we will even find out why musicians make the best mathematicians."

He was decrying how arts and music have been cut from too many schools because of budget cuts. If you missed his column in the Reader Weekly, you can find it online in the High Plains Reader, "Cherry Wood and the Golden Gopher Jockstrap".