Natural Numbers: a natural place to start

This is the first course in our ongoing series, "Mathematics for Everyone: from the beginning". This series is designed with adults in mind--adults who are curious or potentially interested in math but lack the time or resources to enroll in a formal course. One of our goals is to make this as accessible as possible in all ways--even for--especially for--those of us who have not spent much or any meaningful time with mathematics, or for those of us for whom it has been quite some time since we last spent any meaningful time with mathematics. If that is you, and you have even the slightest curiosity toward mathematics or are just looking for something new to try, this series is for you.

While this class is designed with adults in mind, younger students (probably 6th graders and up) are welcome and will likely find some benefit from the course as a supplement to their regular formal studies. This course, as well as the series, is designed, in part, for students to "fill" gaps in content and understanding that may have developed over the years. This could be a good opportunity for parents and kids to engage in something together.

One of many things that I (Jack) like about this series is that we get the opportunity as adults or young adults to re-explore, to rediscover, mathematical concepts that we learned at very young ages--concepts that may seem boring, elementary, and simple--concepts that it turns out are anything but boring, elementary, and simple. Exploring concepts such as counting, basic arithmetic operations, and even numbers themselves, as adults with adult reasoning capabilities, opens up all sorts of fascinating avenues that provide glimpses into the wonder and capability of mathematics.

We will begin our journey through mathematics by initially centering upon our notion of number--a notion that will continually be challenged and expanded. We will initially consider a group (or set) of numbers that are often referred to as "natural numbers". Along the way, we will explore, at an introductory level, foundational concepts spanning many of the "branches" of mathematics.

A brief appeal:

Too often, I hear something along the lines of, "When will I ever use this--just teach me to balance a checkbook." Ok, the checkbook may be anachronistic at this point, but the generality of the protest remains. True, we may not ever actually perform the numerical computations of Bayesian Analysis, for example, in our personal "real worlds"; but the concept, I think, once explored will inevitably reshape the way we observe and evaluate many aspects of our personal "real worlds". And yes, we may never explicitly find utility in many aspects of mathematics, but developing an understanding of mathematical skills and reasoning allows us to sufficiently engage in skills dependent upon mathematics that we do find utility in. More importantly, I think, mathematics gives us a powerful set of perspectives to better understand our world, experiences, and each other; and for me, understanding--understanding that leads to listening--is more valuable than utility.

I can't promise, as is often advertised, that we will explore math and "have fun" in the same sense that we could "have fun" going to the beach, but I am bold enough to believe that we can become interested, deeply curious--and that this quality will prove worthwhile, perhaps even captivating.

Well, there is my brief appeal to give math a chance (playing off of Mr. Lennon's insightful and worthy appeal). If at all interested, please give mathematics a try. If nothing else, it's a change of pace.