Clever or wise: The kinds of mathematics we teach are preparing us for what?

Abstract

It has been years that I ask what it means to be clever and what it means to be wise and that how and in what ways cleverness and wisdom guid my actions? Recently, I asked myself the following question: “The kinds of mathematics that we teach are preparing us for what? To grow clever or to become wise?” In this text, I pursue a deeper exploration of the respective conceptualisations of “cleverness” and “wisdom” and, in particular, I try to understand the role played by mathematics in the growth and development of these two qualities. My mission in this text is to conceptualise the experiences that are offered to students, based on the kinds of mathematics that we teach. I begin by explaining what I mean by “the kinds of mathematics that we teach,” then I explain how I view wisdom and cleverness, and, finally, I critique the role played by the institutional context of mathematics in the type of orientation that mathematics instruction does not take and in the type of socio-political dimension that it promotes.