"Reflections around the Ramanujan Centenary"で学校に於ける数学教育の改善に就いて訴えてゐる；
“There is also another thing which, I think, is rather important, and this is the school mathematics. I have talked with many others who became mathematicians, about the mathematics they learned in school. Most of them were not particularly inspired by it but started reading on their own, outside of school by some accident or the other, as I myself did.
I think mathematics in the school definitely should be revised in such a way that it gives more of a sense of discovery and excitement. I think, in this, the teaching of mathematics often differs from the teaching of other sciences which in the school is usually betterr carried out and does give a sense of discovery and excitement. And besides the schools, I think, it is also important for the development of possible future Ramanujan, that public libraries should stock a reasonable amount of mathematical books that could inspore and really interest someone who wants to find something outside of his school curriculum. This is one important thing that can be done in the future for making it easier for any future Ramanujan.”
興味有る人の為に、此の文章の直前も少しだけ引用しておこう；
“One sometimes hears it said that true genius will always make its way and be recognized in the end. I do not think that is true.
There really must have been cases in the past where the native talent was finally comopletely thwarted by an inelastic system and teachers without sufficient understanding for the rare and unusualy studnet for whom and exception should have been made. And I think this lack of consideration could continue usualy .....”
Jeff Weeksは
次のようなエピソードを披露してゐる；
“Möbius strips and Klein bottles first caught my interest when I was in high school. I knew they were part of something called "topology" and I was eager to learn more. Sadly, neither the school library nor the public one had much on the subject. Perhaps, I thought, I will learn more about topology in college. In college I couldn't even sign up for topology until my senior year, and even then all I got was one course in extreme generalization (point-set topology) and another which developed a collection of technical tools (algebraic topology). Topology's most beautiful examples got bypassed completely. ・・・”
Preface of the book "THE SHAPE OF SPACE" by JEFFREY R.WEEKS
