Activities and Programs to Cultivate Mathematical Interest and Ability

Young children have manifold potentialities. As any teacher or parent knows, a child's most obvious strengths contribute to their development in unexpected ways. A sporting or musical forte may provide an invaluable youthful opportunity to experience "the pursuit of excellence," but may then be laid aside. It is exceedingly rare for a strength which informed observers might "identify" at school level to develop in a predictable way. Most strengths blossom and are then laid aside, whilst some evolve sideways (for example, when the inner muse shies away from the required level of commitment, or takes fright at the miniscule prospects of success in the given field). In their place other strengths-which one may have noticed, but which were never "diagnosed" in the same way-take over and flourish.