A CASE FOR HUMILITY IN THE MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM

Humility is not a virtue frequently associated with good teaching, and much less with mathematics -- a subject considered by many, if not most, to be a serious and strict science that offers little room for soft values like humility. In fact, as Chancellor and Lyubomirsky write, humility may be the most overlooked and underappreciated virtue of all in any context. Given the misconceptions surrounding the virtue of humility, it is useful to first clarify what humility is -- and what it is not. Given the psychological nature of this trait, it is natural to turn to the psychology literature. To start, humility must be distinguished from humiliation, which is associated with feelings of devaluation and loss of integrity or self-worth, and is conceptually related to social rejection. By now, perhaps it is easy to see how humility may be a useful virtue in the mathematics classroom for the student.