Comment j'ai détesté les maths (2013) - full transcript

SCIENCE TODAY

You probably wondered
why you had to do math

back in the classroom.

On top of it,
you thought it was pure boredom.

Well, tonight we're going to try
to interest you...

HOW I CAME TO HATE MATH

This is a math nerd.

- A what?
- A math nerd.

Too much!

Facebook... What's his name?

Mark Zuckerberg.



In the film it's clear he's weird.
He's autistic.

No way!

He just doesn't care about money!

He created Facebook
because he's a pro at math,

but is that all he's got on the brain?

C minus...

C, F...

B minus.

Once bad at math always bad at math.

That's for sure!

It's fate.

It's destiny.

Too much value is placed on math.

Parents think it's all-important.



So when kids don't get it,

they think they're dumb.

They get frustrated, feel stuck,

and give up.

A mathematician,
as considered by most,

has no imagination.

His thoughts parch the heart.

And he...

Following a line of thought
developed in the 18th century,

he's not sensitive.

Take a round of cheese.

You examine its shape, its aroma, etc.

A mathematician
is only interested in its shape.

He doesn't see the cheese,

just its circular shape, nothing else.

This extracting parts from reality

is what the mathematician
is criticized for.

He doesn't live in the real world.

He's not only useless,

it's worse.

He literally kills reality.
By carving it up,

he destroys the world.

Math is the science of death.

Mathematics is serious. It's exact.

It's scientific. It's explicit.

It's frightening.

People make light of it.

They say,

"I might be bad at math,
but I'm still cool."

It's amazing how many claim
they were last in math.

How could so many be last?

Mathematics is rigorous
but also creative.

It's abstract but universal.

It's inegalitarian and democratic.

It's ancient yet always evolving.

It's solitary and collective at once.

It's difficult and super easy.

The words on the left are pretty grim.

Rigorous, abstract, inegalitarian,

ancient, solitary, difficult.

But then there's
creative, universal, democratic,

constantly evolving, collective,
super easy.

That's way more sexy!

It's still full of pins.

The Queen of Hearts.

It's missing the sleeves.

I love the creative aspect of sewing,

making shapes and playing with them.

It does require a lot of math.

Not that I do it for the math...

but you do have to deal
with things like curvature.

For example, I sew for myself,

and I'm not shaped the same
as my daughter.

It creates new geometric problems

and it's fun.

Professor of Mathematics

I was called Mr. Math as a kid.

It did go a bit to my head.

I drew graffiti on the walls
of the bathroom at home.

Cubic equations and such.

Curious graffiti, for sure.

But they fascinated me.
I couldn't solve them.

I asked my teacher to help me

and she never would.

But she did ask me to help her
teach the others.

That's when I realized
I understood it.

It was easy for me.

That's the way it was.

It was all there, clear as a bell.

But my classmates were lost.

They couldn't visualize objects.
Nothing made sense.

They couldn't draw analogies.
They had no points of reference.

So trying to come up with images

to explain, demonstrate,
help them understand wasn't easy.

I never managed.

It did teach me
a lot about life though.

I understood that all of it
was hard.

The challenge of knowledge,
the challenge of math

is being able
to convey and share it.

What a musical entrance...

Not bad, huh?

Hi there!

Advanced Math Class

Like this?
Usually a hat is worn...

There's an axis, an ellipse,
which takes us back to the subject.

It has two symmetrical axes,
a long and a short.

As a rule the long axis of the head

goes in this direction.

We need to remember that mathematics

isn't a single truth or a perfect object

that everyone will fathom
or discover in the same manner.

It has a plural meaning.

Each person
will interpret it differently.

Okay, 1+1 = 2.

But when you say, 1+1 = 2,
what's essential?

The result, the addition, or the 1?

What do I have to do
to get 2?

It's difficult to come up
with good images,

several images,

so that everyone can relate.

A smile, a grimace.

A smile, and zero.

- Minus 1.
- For me, it's zero.

From the top.

One...

one smile,
and back at the start.

If we unfold it,
it has to be zero...

Don't you see it here?

It's because if here

we continue on, we end up with another.

So it's the same thing above

except the corner is hiding it.

Down below it's there twice.

It counts as one.

And why?

Because what counts isn't necessarily

wthe corner.

You have to make the corners round.

The curve has to be smooth.

Let's start again. One,

two...

Math speaks deeply to who we are.

Words like axis, root,
complex number,

imaginary number, negative,

division

also relate to our personal lives.

Okay, no problem.

Bye.

See you Friday.

Bell, you're a sweetie, but stop...

Educational Psychologist in Mathematics

Take a kid who's intelligent, clever,

too smart sometimes for his own good.

When he starts doing math

he suddenly becomes dumb.

It's so hard, it's utterly exhausting.

Then he closes his book
and is suddenly full of pep.

It's because doing math
demands enormous energy.

In one of his books,
a French author wrote,

"I spent two hours not doing my math."

The time spent not doing math
is exhausting.

The anxiety of opening your book
and not understanding anything.

Feeling that you never will.

Not knowing where to start.
The test.

It's terrorizing
and completely draining.

Math is risky business.

You try to understand,
knowing you might fail.

At first, you struggle at it for hours.

Getting it wrong has its reward.

It's the beginning of an idea.
You're reasoning.

It's a real adventure,
the adventure of math.

The adventure is what comes.

The real work
is turning what comes

into something interesting,
alive, enriching,

whether it's right or wrong.

So am I a humanoid?

Am I a scientist?

A biologist?

Did I live in New York?

In the 21st century?

Am I Marie Curie?

Not the 20th.

Just one loop on the...

You can do A-C-B like this.

A, C then back to B.

No, it's not B-¹.

That's a C.

This is C-¹,
and it goes here.

That's what I did.

- There?
- It doesn't work.

In math,
you have nothing to lean on.

When you study literature

you have a novel.

The teacher vanishes behind
"The Red and the Black."

In math, theorems are difficult
to grasp. They're evanescent.

Your math teacher is the incarnation

of mathematics.

I see lots of kids in grade school

who try to add.
3+2...

I watch them finger counting.

They try not to show it.
They aren't supposed to.

It's really too bad.

They should use
their hands and bodies as support,

even right through high school.

An inflection point is like a toboggan.

A toboggan at first
goes increasingly faster.

It gets steeper.
It continues the descent,

but towards a much gentler slope.

The moment it stops accelerating

and starts to slow down

is what we call the inflection point.

Then there's a definition
based on the second derivative.

But if your body remembers
the sensation of riding a toboggan,

the second derivative is easy as Pi.

Each mathematical notion

can be related
to a physical experience.

- Goin' well?
- Yeah.

The beauty of mathematics
lies in those sweet moments

when I suddenly get it.

Now I have the words.

You more or less always understood.

But the road was just so tortuous,
you ran out of breath.

It's like climbing a steep mountain face

only to realize how close
you are to your starting point.

It's the moment you discover
there was a straight path.

Now you can express it.
You can convey it.

You can explain it
so others understand.

It's an awesome moment.

The beauty of math is that moment

when the words used to describe it
flow naturally.

26th International Congress
of Mathematicians

When you get the phone call, you go...

You hang up and suddenly
wonder if it wasn't a hoax.

The email confirmation comes,

but doubt remains.

Slowly you get other confirmations.

You're told to keep it quiet.

If someone mentions
the Fields Medal, you play dumb.

They wish you luck, you thank them.

You can't say anything.

I had a course to prepare.
It'll be of a hundred pages.

So I got to writing

but the sources were lacking.

I had to rework this, rewrite that.

Articles needed reworking.
I ended up rewriting everything.

It's the book that's in command.

If the chapter doesn't sing,

if that little voice says "no,"
you rework it.

Over and over again.

After years,
days and nights of work

it's there. It's finally done.

I worked on this thing

sometimes morning and night.

The first time I sat down to reread it,

make corrections and polish it up,

I took advantage of my vacation.

My family left on a trip
and I stayed home.

I went to the marketplace,

bought a bunch of vegetables,

and made a big pot of soup.

I ate it for a full week.

Not to mention bread.
Bread is absolutely vital.

I read all day.

I'd get up in the morning,
read and revise

until I went to bed.

I did that for a week.

To achieve good results
that's what is necessary.

In the history of mathematics

there's one award
that stands apart.

Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Institute of
Advanced Scientific Studies (IHES)

It celebrates youth.

Recipients of the Fields
Medal must be under 40.

The prize money isn't large,

characteristic
of how mathematicians operate.

And in the field of study

it's the most prestigious award.

Mathematics is too often
reduced to calculations.

Even if they play an important role,

mathematics is the largest
manufacturer of concepts in the world.

In the 20th century
the field of mathematics exploded.

In 1900, research mathematicians

numbered around 150 in the world.

Today there are 80,000!

And they each produce
about one theorem a year.

It's just full of overflowing,
abundant activity.

It's essential to bring attention
to this movement.

Inaugural Address

Mathematician/Funder
of Renaissance Technologies

Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival

It's often ideological.

Those involved
often have biased opinions,

which are hard to change.

When we teach kids

we shouldn't have biased opinions
or preconceived ideas.

It's surprising when you think

how little our brains
have evolved over the millenniums.

Take a child...

What he learns
at the beginning of his experience

isn't necessarily technology-dependant.

We should already have found better,

the best methods for teaching
how to read and count.

Yet no one can agree.
That isn't normal.

Yes, things are changing
in high school curriculum.

We have to adapt to advances
in science and technology.

But for kids, we should've found

the miracle method
on which everyone agrees.

2 plus 2 still equals 4.

We have to be able to educate children

who, in some twenty years,
will become active citizens.

We need to anticipate
what life will be like for them.

We live in a changing world.
A world of progress.

A world that is often violent and cruel.

An uncertain world
where people kill and die.

Where children suffer.

This world will soon be theirs.

We must adapt education
to the world of tomorrow.

The recently proposed reform
has caused reaction.

Modern mathematics,
the reform that has confused

students and parents alike.

Modern mathematics
should provide us

with a universal tool

that will enable us
to adapt to new situations.

In the '70s there was a desire
to modernize

and industrialize France.

To do that
we needed engineers,

more than the number
graduating from university.

Historian of Mathematics

We needed a large pool of them.
Mathematics was considered the means

by which to train them.

It was the baby boom,
the population had soared.

The birthrate had risen,

and classes were filled to the brim.

The problem was how to offer opportunity

to everyone.

The modern mathematics reform

was thought to be

the most effective means
to teach the masses.

Access to mathematical knowledge

was thought to be something
natural to man,

while literary knowledge,
theater, poetry, music

was learned socially.

This viewpoint was not entirely sound

but it was workable.

First, programs were revised.

Mathematics had to be
conceived differently.

Mathematics is a logical, clear,
distinct process

and was thus deemed
the "least worst" means of selection.

The math curriculum was inspired

by the work of top mathematicians
who had influenced their era.

It was a group of mathematicians,

young professors who would get together

and prepare their courses.

"Let's work up next year's courses."

Before they knew it,
they were rewriting mathematics.

It was a time in the field

where some order needed to be restored.

Notations needed reviewing,
interdisciplinary relations assessed.

They had to start from scratch,
and it took years.

This group of mathematicians

published under the pseudonym
Nicolas Bourbaki.

Though it started in France,
within a few years

it had become a worldwide movement.

It was quite a phenomenon.

Conferences were held on "modern math"

in South-East Asia,

in Brazil,

and, of course, "new math"
in England and the United States.

Yes, it was new mathematics,

with an emphasis on modern.

In other words,
mathematics truly of the time.

The modern mathematics reform echoed,
in the events of May '68,

the demands for more freedom
in the classroom.

People felt they had been liberated

from so many constraints,

especially those of authority.

They were breaking
with a restrictive culture

that had so encumbered them

and didn't allow them

to be truly themselves.

I was at school during
the reform and loved it.

It created a real opening,
which was fabulous.

It led to a generation
of mathematicians

with the highest qualifications

and a solid foundation.

It's true.

But generations since

have been either disgusted
or overwhelmed,

when they could've learned math,

or at least not rejected it.

That's truly sad.
It's still a heavy price to pay.

A number of politicians and journalists
were so traumatized

they still can't say they enjoy math.

If you don't get it, you're in trouble.

You're not doing any more calculations?

We don't know how to do them anymore.

Calculations with decimals,
numerals, division...

I'm completely lost.

The big problem is the language.

Math terms are super complicated.

Math has become so abstract,
it's a joke.

The new definition of a straight line

makes no sense.

You learn it by heart
and mindlessly recite it.

You get the gist of it,

but the terms are incomprehensible.

Even parents
have to go back to school.

95 percent of parents

can't make sense of the new textbooks.

Kindergarteners were told
not to finger-count.

They had
to identify commonalities between...

3 isn't the number anymore.

It's 3 shoes, 3 pants, 3 crayons.

And the link between them?
The number 3!

Except kids already know
what the number 3 is.

Likewise,

you don't draw a line

because the act of drawing
has been corrupted by the senses.

It needs to be defined abstractly.

The idea behind the reform was

to make kids understand
before actually drawing.

Understand first then feel,
and only then.

On top of it,
teachers hadn't been trained.

At the time there was
a shortage of high school teachers

so we had to hire teachers
from grade school

who hadn't studied science at college.

They were good teachers

but had no scientific basis.

And they were supposed
to teach this new math

with its extreme level of abstraction.

So as not lose grip,
they went strictly by the book.

They understood nothing.

- So their students didn't either?
- Exactly.

Teaching methods changed.

Completely.
I was a teacher back then.

It helped me improve my teaching skills.

How have kids
reacted to the changes?

They love their new math lessons.

They can't wait for class.

They don't get tired
during the lesson.

It's a game.

It's quite amusing to read

the modern mathematics textbooks.

The explanations kept getting longer.

They had to learn to "speak well"
even if it concerned mathematics.

That hadn't been planned.

What was supposed to be a sphere
of creativity and freedom

became something
that petrified everyone.

"I don't understand anything.
I'm completely lost."

It created bewilderment
instead of creativity,

like a rabbit caught in headlights.
"What's this truck going to do to me?"

A school curriculum

can't be conceived on paper.

It has to be tested.

You have to experiment
when it comes to child education.

You first test a program,
see how kids fare

then go from there.

We're limited in our understanding
of how the brain works.

All we can do is experiment.

Modern mathematics was full
of honorable intentions.

It was developed by the best
mathematicians of the day.

It just wasn't the right reform
at the right time.

Nowadays,

people use the word "Bourbakist"
as an insult.

A kind insult, it you will.

"You're abstract.
What are you, a Bourbakist?"

For a time
people criticized Bourbaki,

but now I think
there's a general consensus

that Bourbaki had
a big impact on mathematics.

There's no denying or idealizing it.

It was a milestone.

The idea behind it
was to convey

a maximum of knowledge
to a maximum of kids.

But trends in math curriculum
sort of betrayed the spirit of math.

It became hard,

severe, too abstract,
completely based on objects...

independent of human beings.

Bit by bit, the idea of mathematics

as profitable, as functional prevailed.

Obviously,

Clemenceau High School Principal

science majors
are eclipsing all the others.

It's terrible to see math being used
as an assessment tool,

when many kids
will never become scientists.

Since science is considered
"the" field of study today,

landing a prestigious position
is all but guaranteed.

Students major in math,
even those graduating with a BA.

SCIENCE OF EDUCATION RESEARCHER

MSRI Director

Mathematical Research Institute
of Oberwolfach

Germany

Director

Research can't be just summoned up.

You must rely on initiatives
and the competence of experts.

There are those
who suddenly have an idea.

They set it out.
But no, it doesn't work.

The second time, it's still no.

The third time, yes! It finally works.

People have a hard time
understanding creativity.

Artists function differently.
They explore the unknown.

It's hard to find the right problem.

Those of no interest come by the dozen.

Asking the right question
is a big chunk of the work.

It's the path taken that's important.

And there isn't one unique path.

Sometimes you find a shortcut,

a really simple shortcut.

Not as simple as an exercise,
but close.

It's much less important.

The proof is simpler,

but a complex proof
is much more profound and rich.

The mathematical result is important,

but the proof is often
just as important.

So is the approach,

the arguments used,
the interdisciplinary connections,

the developed theories, the tools.

A new way of seeing things,
new connections.

They all lead to other ideas,
other avenues, other techniques.

And this requires a lot of time.

In order to discover
new fields of application,

or radically new concepts and phenomena,

highly developed research is required.

Unfortunately...

When we realized research,
apart from the rising costs,

was having an impact,

and that science and industry were now
connected through high-technology,

people said, "We're there.

"We're now one.
We'll draw the consequences,

"and now function like companies."

That's a big mistake.

"We finance you, so we want
to know what you're doing.

"We'll decide what you work on."

That's blatant abuse of power.

It kills the process
we should be defending.

All countries do it
except...

China.

The total counterexample.

The Chinese understood
they couldn't meet

the expected levels
of performance and development

without massively increasing
pure research.

They'll have a labor shortage
in 25 to 30 years.

They'll need to produce
high value-added products

in order for the country to survive.

They recognized
in order to achieve that

they'd need highly
developed fundamental research.

However there is a consequence to this.

Most scientists are passionate
about what they do.

Take away their freedom,
tell them what to do every morning

and they'll up and leave.

Researchers aren't well paid,
though I'm not complaining.

But most scientists
are highly competent.

If they want to make money,
they'll go elsewhere.

To get the most creative to stay
leave them alone.

Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies
(IHES), Bures-sur-Yvette, France

Mathematics works well
with music and mountains.

Mathematics, mountain, music.
M-M-M.

Alain,
is your sense of orientation good?

Computational Science Researcher

We live in a world saturated
with massive, complex data.

Any two individuals in the world

are connected
by a chain of acquaintances.

This is known as discrete mathematics.

Everything today
is done through data analysis.

Google's search engine

is a mathematical algorithm
worth 200 billion dollars.

Cryptography Laboratory

Olivier, help Alexis out
so he doesn't break anything.

Mathematicians
remained craftsmen for a long time.

But the social impact
of what they are now doing

is a radical shift.

Many hadn't much considered
scientific responsibility.

They thought they lived
in a world a bit apart.

They'd never had to choose,
like some,

whether or not to join
the Manhattan Project

and help in the making
of the atomic bomb.

Suddenly there was
a whole branch of mathematics

that found itself
at the heart of economic activity,

an economic activity that was having
a massive global impact.

Financial mathematics.

Professor of Financial Mathematics

The sophistication of the mathematics
changed abruptly.

You now had mathematical products,
like you have chemical products.

Banks were making
a number of new offers.

New products, new ways of developing
financing operations,

new profit-sharing plans.

Schemes
that hadn't existed before.

These were new products

whose very existence depended on
new mathematics.

Most models used by the banks

are based on random variables.

These models were built
on statistical data

in order to calibrate the parameters.

Most of these banks, in feverish
competition with each other,

never shared information.

From a scientific viewpoint,
it was crucial

to have at one's disposal
a vast pool of data.

And that was non-existent

because each bank jealously guarded
its own information.

LaPlace said that
if we knew everything

we could predict everything.

In the end,

our inclination
for breaking "nature" down

into forms and numbers,

drawing conclusions,
even predicting destiny

dates back to antiquity.

It's in our nature.

But it's important
to learn to live fortuitously,

with uncertainty,

and to master it,
to actually live it.

Our fascination with scientism
has wreaked havoc.

"Science can solve everything."

Philosophically speaking,
that's unacceptable.

Science doesn't have all the answers.

What science can give us

is the capacity to turn doubt
into a virtue.

We all must doubt
when it's appropriate,

but we can find certitude
even in moments of doubt.

Subtitles by Theresa Murphy

Subtitling: C.M.C. - Paris