ABSTRACT
Several years ago, I attended a math workshop of Marie Milis, a mathematician from Belgium. Math-traumatised persons were welcome – I was one of them. We had to split into small groups and solve a real-life problem dealing with nomads and sizes for their tents. We were so involved in our discussions that the sixty minutes allowed flew by. The fear of failure was defeated by curiosity and by knowing that we were allowed to be wrong. This feeling is what is nowadays called joyful or playful learning. Learning happens through discussions, trying out different ways of arriving at solutions, finding creative ways of thinking, and learning by making mistakes without any fear of failure or pressure for success.
