I decided in 11th grade to be a mathematician because I read Jurassic Park, went down a rabbit hole about chaos theory, and ran smack-dab into a conversation wh

I decided in 11th grade to be a mathematician because I read Jurassic Park, went down a rabbit hole about chaos theory, and ran smack-dab into a conversation where someone asked Mandelbrot if the mathematicians knew he was using their work in practical ways, and his answer was "No, and they probably don't care." Something clicked -- I realized mathematics was so beautiful, it was a worthy pursuit in and of itself -- and thus I went on to get a PhD in math, decided not to stay in academia, and be frustrated that most of the web development I was doing wasn't sufficiently mathematical. Having said that, I also cannot help but think that connections to the real world ought to be pursued -- both because some of the hardest and most interesting mathematical problems come from practical concerns, and because practical concerns draw on math to simplify those concerns and make new discoveries. Indeed, it is a crying shame that there are efforts (at least, on the philosophical level) to try to remove math from physics and engineering, as if the math is what makes those subjects hard! Also, we don't know what approach will work with each kid. It would be a great benefit if we tried different approaches, some of which may "click", some of which will fall flat.