2 0 4 D O C . 1 8 7 I N S T R U C T I O N I N M A T H E M A T I C S 187. “Is Today’s Instruction in Mathematics Indispensable for an Education in Logical Thinking?” [Einstein 1926i] Published 31 January 1926 In: Berliner Tageblatt, 31 January 1926, 1. Beiblatt. Professor Dr. Albert Einstein[1] said: Based on my belief and experience, there is no person for whom the major educational values of mathematics would be inaccessible. With otherwise normal intellectual ability, there certainly can be in- adequate spatial perception and poorly trained combination skills, but I never de- tected a basic inability to follow mathematical problems. The fact that so many failures are to be found in our school classes is attributable either to the improper selection of the material or to the pedagogical incompetence of the teachers. In- struction that conveys only the calcified form, the clichés of mathematics, and sug- gests nothing of the lively content of mathematical thinking leads the young person to inhibitions that are difficult to overcome. Not until a later age have people I know told me that their apparent lack of mathematical talent was attributable to such inhibitions at an early childhood age. The primary requirement for a school subject is not its application to the prob- lems of everyday life, but rather the benefit to the intellectual abilities gained from the exercise in question. It is my opinion that engagement even with the most ele- mentary basic features of mathematics provides training for clarity and tidiness of thinking like no other subject the significantly formative factor is the knowledge of the mathematical method. A universally required course in the lower grades seems absolutely essential to me. But from roughly the tenth high school grade onwards,[2] a separation into mathematical-scientific and philological-historical-legal aptitudes should occur. I believe much less value should be placed on so-called general education than on schooling that corresponds to the students’ aptitudes. The fact that, additionally, elective instruction in mathematics must be guaranteed to interested students from the philological-historical classes seems self-evident to me.