Today is the 50th anniversary of the first human orbiting the earth. That human, Yuri Gagarin, was Russian, and his accomplishment was, like the Sputnik launch, a moment that terrified Americans and fed our fears that we couldn’t keep up with the Joneses across the sea. We look at this anniversary, and at the fact that we’re still lagging behind our international neighbors in math and science. What would it take for us to catch up? Recreational mathematician Vi Hart has some ideas. First on the list: to stop seeing math as a skill of right and wrong, and to begin embracing it as a tool of creativity.
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