I remember little of my education at 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ better than my calculus class with Joe Roberts [1952–2014].
I remember sitting in the classroom at 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ, watching Professor Roberts enter. He ran his hand through his hair, offered his straightforward greeting, “How is mathematics today?” and then moved, as in a dance, to an extraordinary mathematical journey on the blackboard.
I’d been blessed since elementary school with more than one extraordinary teacher of mathematics, but I never held court as head of class. It has always been a bit of mystery to me that I ever was allowed into Professor Roberts’ class, and to this day when people mention calculus I find my intellect feeling a bit fuzzy. Sometimes I find myself wondering, was I even there? In calculus class? 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ?
Then I read Bill Donahue’s article “Prime Exponent” in the September 2014 edition of 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ, and I knew, yes, I was there. I was one of the many lucky students fortunate enough to experience this extraordinary teacher.
I often remember taking the final exam for that course—delightful! I never learned, did I pass or fail? I never received any grade from 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓÆµ or from any teacher in the school. So I’ve never known, should I be dismayed by my profound lack of understanding or delighted because I passed the test?
I do know that I have carried into my life and into my work a profound appreciation for numbers, and I have tried as an elementary grades Waldorf schoolteacher to bring to my students some of the awesome and beautiful truths of numbers that Joe Roberts revealed to me.
I believe that some of those truths appear in my paintings, as well, but that would take more than 300 words to relate.
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