George Polya Quotes about Education

All George Polya Quotes Education quotes Giving Knowledge Math Mathematics Purpose Science Students Swimming Teaching

It is better to solve one problem five different ways, than to solve five problems one way.

It is better to solve one problem five different ways, than to solve five problems one way.

Education, Math, Different

If there is a problem you can't solve, then there is an easier problem you can't solve: find it.

Education, Knowledge, Math

Solving problems is a practical skill like, let us say, swimming. We acquire any practical skill by imitation and practice. Trying to swim, you imitate what other people do with their hands and feet to keep their heads above water, and, finally, you learn to swim by practicing swimming. Trying to solve problems, you have to observe and to imitate what other people do when solving problems, and, finally, you learn to do problems by doing them.

George Polya

Education, Math, Swimming

Beauty in mathematics is seeing the truth without effort.

George Polya

Education, Math, Effort

The first and foremost duty of the high school in teaching mathematics is to emphasize methodical work in problem solving...The teacher who wishes to serve equally all his students, future users and nonusers of mathematics, should teach problem solving so that it is about one-third mathematics and two-thirds common sense.

George Polya

Education, Teacher, Teaching

Mathematics has two faces: it is the rigorous science of Euclid, but it is also something else. Mathematics presented in the Euclidean way appears as a systematic, deductive science; but mathematics in the making appears as an experimental, inductive science. Both aspects are as old as the science of mathematics itself.

George Polya

Education, Math, Two

George Pólya (1945). “How to Solve it: A New Aspect of Mathematical Method”