MATHEMATICAL KIDS

MATHEMATICAL KIDS



Brain is mightier than brawn,
The pen, sharper than sword;
Words mean more than a sentence,
Symbols, more than a word.

Symbols are often abstract
As in mathematics.
They help in understanding
Physics, informatics.

Decimal, algebra, pi
Zero, infinity,
Were born in the Indian
Minds in reality

All this had happened full eight
Millennia ago.
That’s why Indian kids far
In mathematics go!



• Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format

* Inspired by: "When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my children: 'Finish your mathematics homework. Think of the children in India who would make you starve, if you don't.” ---- Thomas Friedman of “The New York Times”, while delivering his keynote address at “TiECon conference, 2005”. --Full story: http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jun/10sfocg.htm

* Six years later, President Obama reminded the Americans--"Meanwhile, nations like China and India realised that, with some changes of their own, they could compete in this new world. And so they started educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on maths and science."


* A review I received is worth mentioning—“Thank you for the poem. The message is something I have thought about for years growing up in the USA. It is sad to say, but the American people are becoming a bunch of privileged idiots. We say we want our children to be smarter, then cut all the programs necessary and give teachers sub-par salaries. I believe we are on a path of our own making to self destruction; where money and beauty are valued more than intelligence and integrity.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/state-of-the-union-address-obama-spu...


• Initially written as entry #354178 in the BOOK--MISCELLANEA , "MISCELLANEA" . Posted as independent item on 15 May 2010.



M C Gupta
17 June 2005