EDITORIAL
Good Will?
Recently I enjoyed a viewing of the double Oscar winning film "Good Will Hunting", a film in which mathematicians and their activities are portrayed. Although the representation of mathematical research may not be as accurate as we might like, at least it is not in the "Nutty Professor" category! Mathematics provided a motivation for the main story line, the interaction between Will and his therapist. Among the highlights for me was the monologue given by young Will in response to the CIA officers keen to recruit his talents for their cryptographic activities.
One interesting comment was that Unabomber Ted Kaczinsky might be the widest known contemporary mathematician in the US! I wonder if the general public in New Zealand are able to recall our own Fields Medallist, Vaughan Jones, given the publicity he has received locally? I was disappointed that our local film critic replaced "Fields Medallist" by "Nobel Laureate" in his review.
An excellent review from a mathematical perspective appeared in the April 1998 issue of the Notices of the AMS. Very briefly, for those who are not aware of the story, imagine if you can, how you might handle a socially maladjusted young Ramanujan appearing in your neighbourhood. Although such a once-in-a-century discovery is unlikely to appear locally, we do from time to time become
aware of young talented students who have mathematical and other talents well in advance of their peers. Because of our extramural teaching programme, Massey mathematicians have been, and still are teaching university level mathematics to students who might otherwise still be at Primary School.
It is common for the more able proportion of students at some Secondary School to be accelerated in their mathematics curriculum, frequently coming into their 7th form year already having achieved a good bursary mark. However I am not aware of any discussion of the potential benefits and disadvantages of curriculum acceleration for these students. I feel that a long-term study should be carried out. What is the effect of these accelerations when they do enter university? Direct entries seem less common than in earlier years, and degree programmes have less flexibility in today's more tightly regulated frameworks.
Previous generations of students had the very challenging Scholarship syllabus and examination as an extension at the end of their secondary careers, an option now not widely available. What is there now to excite and extend the most mathematically able of this generation? We only cater for a few of these students with the Olympiad training programme, a programme not suited to all of them anyway.
Mike Hendy