site.btaCryptography Award Winner Yael Tauman Kalai: Changes Needed in Mathematics Education

Mathematics education needs to change in two main ways, said cryptography expert Yael Tauman Kalai in response to a question from BTA during a meeting with journalists at the 11th Heidelberg Laureate Forum, which took place from September 22 to September 27 in Heidelberg.

Kalai believes society must abandon the notion that those who are not good at mathematics are not intelligent, and that mathematics should be taught in an engaging manner, not boringly. At the forum, she delivered a lecture on the application of cryptography in compressing proofs in computer science.

Cryptography expert Yael Tauman Kalai, born in Israel and now teaching at MIT, believes society places undue emphasis on mathematical ability as a measure of intelligence. "I have no talents; the only thing I know and can do is mathematics. Despite this, I am perceived as very smart because I deal with mathematics," she said. Kalai argues that people talented in other fields are often not considered smart if they lack mathematical skills. She notes that being good at mathematics is "a very specific talent, one among millions of others," and changing this perception could reduce people's fear of the subject.

Kalai also highlights the challenges of teaching mathematics effectively, stating that it is often taught in a boring manner, causing children to lose interest. "I think teaching mathematics well and interestingly is harder than teaching other subjects. Everyone likes interesting stories, so it is easy to teach history, arts," she explained. Additionally, she mentioned that while cryptography initially focused on information security, it now plays a role in certifying computations in computer science and protecting against quantum attacks.