Mathematics, Music, Art, Poetry, Dance — It’s All Patterns
Mathematics, music, art, poetry and dance may seem like separate worlds, but beneath the surface they share a common language: patterns.
A collection of posts that go beneath the surface of school maths. Uncovering the deep structures, hidden simplicity, and powerful patterns often missed in traditional classrooms. For parents, educators, and curious learners who want clarity, not just performance. From foundational operations to the field axioms, this is where real mathematical understanding begins.
Mathematics, music, art, poetry and dance may seem like separate worlds, but beneath the surface they share a common language: patterns.
Anyone who has spent time in a maths classroom will have heard the instruction: “Show your working.” For many students, this feels unnecessary. If they believe they can do the calculation in their head, writing it down seems like extra effort. But writing is one of the most powerful thinking tools humans have ever developed….
In the bizarre stillness of May 2020 when the streets were silent, schools were closed, and ‘zooming’ was all the rage, I put my thinking cap on and cooked up something I thought could help. I combined my livestreaming chops from music with deep experience in online tutoring, alongside a community of teachers I’d met…
The short answer : A unary operation takes one input and produces an output; a binary operation combines two inputs to produce an output. Negation and squaring are examples of unary operations, while addition, subtraction, multiplication and division are familiar binary operations. One of the most overlooked—and surprisingly simple—concepts in school mathematics is understanding what…