Math and Poetry

Every specialty has its own language. There is no question this is true. But math is uniquely able to destroy people's confidence and self-image if it isn't handled well. 

This particular language is spoken by every inanimate object in the universe. The point of magic, of necromancy, of astrology, of all that nonsense, is to speak directly with the universe and/or "the spirits" that are said to dominate it.

Mathematics does what all those others things try to do, but can't. Math allows you to communicate with stones, trees, stars, with EVERYTHING. 

Math is the Ur-language.

When people can't do math, they lose the ability to converse with the universe. And they inchoately know that they have not got the ability. It is humiliating in a way that not knowing other sub-languages can never be.

Now, some people object to learning math via online tools like Khan Academy, but the tool itself is not the problem. The tool has to be used as a teacher, but the student must practice the concepts taught themselves, or all the videos in the world are a waste of time. Math problems must be done on paper with pencil. Writing with pencils and paper is the single most important way of building memories and connections. 

That's why all math needs to be done in a math notebook. The computer screen CAN be instructional, when used correctly, but math is done between the brain, the pencil and the paper. 

Reading physical books is geometric - each physical page maps to a physical memory in a way that screen reading cannot emulate. Our house is filled with books, my adult kids still routinely read 500 to 1000 page books on the regular.

But, if you need to teach a subject you don't know, a screen can have a place. Listening to a Feynman lecture cannot be done without appealing to electronics. That's just how it is. 

As Chesterton said, we have to commune with the great civilization of the dead. The dead can commune with us through books, and now also through screens. Screens have their uses.