At 08:33 PM 12/12/2004 -0500, you wrote:
But the best defense - the first to get beyond the utilitarian argument - came from a certain Miss Collins. She is my daughter's math teacher[....] "What we do isn't exactly what mathematicians do," she explained. "And I know more alums here become artists than become mathematicians. But kids don't study poetry just because they're going to grow up to be poets. It's about a habit of mind. Your mind doesn't think abstractly unless it's asked to - and it needs to be asked to from a relatively young age. The rigor and logic that goes into math is a good way for your brain to be trained."
Three cheers for Miss Collins! Her statement should be framed and hung on the walls of math class rooms everywhere, perhaps with the additional observation that there's another payoff. Given the right "habit of mind" a person who grows up to be neither a poet nor a mathematician may nevertheless take delight in reading a poem, or in understanding a logical mathematical argument.