A student just had a tantrum in my Intro to Literature class.
“I’m in math!” he vociferated. “We don’t do creative and original! Math is not creative or original! You don’t need imagination to do math. You barely even need to think. Everything is clear and direct.”
Then he started throwing things on the ground and generally thrashing about.
So I did the most unusual thing and made a little speech in defense of the creative and intellectual merits of math.
Wonderful! How can anyone believe that mathematics is not a creative endeavor?
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he doesn’t know what math is yet, if he ever will.
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I told the student that without creativity and imagination, upper-level math will be impossible for him to master.
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Tell him to give you 100 pushups immediately.
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Throwing things on the ground because of the difference between literature and math? He must have been having a bad day.
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That said, recently I have been taking a computer class and using the “advanced mathematics” part of my brain for the first time in years. It feels really good to be using that part of my brain again and very different from doing research in the humanities.
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Math is not creative or original! You don’t need imagination to do math. You barely even need to think. Everything is clear and direct
I hate to say that, but the kid is an idiot. “You barely even need to think”? FFS.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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