The Crystallizing Experience: Discovering an Intellectual Gift

According to standard mathematical history, Evariste Galois (1811-1832) was initially tutored at home by his mother and entered the public school at the age of 11. Because his unpredictable disposition and stubborn attitude precluded any formal success as a student, he had to make the personal discovery of the world of mathematics on his own. Quite by chance he came across a geometry textbook written by Legendre: “The book aroused his enthusiasm; it was not a textbook written by some hack, but the work of art composed by a creative mathematician. A single reading sufficed to reveal the whole structure of elementary geometry with a crystal clarity to the fascinated boy. He had mastered it” (Bell, 1965, p. 364).