The Martians of Budapest
I&#x27;d like to offer my point as Hungarian, and enthusiast of the history of Hungarian mathematics education, who heard lots of stories from math teacher grandparents.<p>This article is great read, well researched and quoted. Still, I think what it really misses to hit home and hammer down is the context and background where it all came from: the unbelievable greatness of the math education and math teachers of this country with streak going on over 100 years even though we might be at the end tail now (but still, great results still being achieved at the math olympics, if that is a metric that would matter to the reader: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=38xeYPAUPd0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=38xeYPAUPd0</a>).<p>So while the Martians are of course worthy of accolades since their (+ || -) contributions and their unique and sad background are much more exceptional than every one of their peers but they weren&#x27;t just one off geniuses. They were a culmination of many things.<p>From year to year, like some american sports draft an unusually high output of great systems thinkers and numbermongers entered almost all fields of real sciences.<p>It all starts perhaps w&#x2F; Sipos Pal, Farkas Gyula, and the father Bolyai Farkas, figureheads of Hungarian sciences of the 19th century. They set down the basics of sciences education of Hungary with decades of hard work. They and their peers organised societies for math and physics and later started publishing KoMal math journal - mentioned in the article - in 1891 which is still active to this day) to be able to build out common curriculum integrating the advanced concepts of the time, Bolyai also traveled Europe went to Gottingen and befriended Gauss to start creating continental connections. The wider context always proved to be favorable except the abhorrent times of 2nd world war. But even then, these amazing people of course had to flee for their lives but during their childhood they were able to develop their crafts because first the Austro-Hungarian Empire then also the interwar &quot;kingdom&quot; needed to display intellectual sovereignty and then when socialism slided in, that regime was highly interested in praising the sciences instead of religion, and also did good by opening up universities and education in general for the women the poor the peasents. For the past 150 years, up until now this also meant that being sciences teacher in elementary or high-school were most respectable and lifelong vocations held in high regard in these societies. It&#x27;s an incredibly delicate and complicated topic that I might not have the vocabulary to flesh out fully.<p>So to get back to the main poin, that the Martians weren&#x27;t Martians in the context of the history of maths in Hungary. By the time the next generation grew up the flood gates have opened, here&#x27;s a semi-random sampling sans Martians, starting from 1802 until 1960s, the main epicenters being Transylvania -&gt; Budapest -&gt; Szeged -&gt; Budapest &amp;&amp; Debrecen &amp;&amp; Szeged, so it was really not just a locality in say 1 city:<p>son Bolyai Janos, Eotvos Lorand, Valyi Gyula, Konig Denes &amp; brother Konig Gyorgy, Fejer Lipot<i>, Szego Gabor, Riesz Frigyes</i> &amp; brother Marcell, Haar Alfred<i>, Szokefalvy-nagy father &amp; son</i> (before the Martians these 4 were the first generation of widely famous Hungarian mathematicians, I believe), Szego Gabor, Egervary Jeno, Kerekjarto Bela, Lanczos Kornel, Rado Tibor, Nemenyi Pal, Redei Laszlo, Kalmar Laszlo, Janossy Lajos, the couple Szekeres Eszter and Gyorgy, Peter Rozsa, Hajos Gyorgy, the power couple Turan Pal and T. Sos Vera, Gallai Tibor, Fejes Toth Laszlo, Suranyi Janos, Bodo Zalan, Erdos&#x27; favourite pal Renyi Alfred, Fary Istvan, Lax Peter, Csaszar Akos, Hajnal Andras, Aczel Janos, Csakany Bela, Szemeredi Endre, Bollobas Bela, Lovasz Laszlo, Csirmaz Laszlo, Tusnady Gabor, Barany Imre, Babai Laszlo, Furedi Zoltan, Komjath Peter, Pach Janos, Stipsicz Andras<p>(Important to note that as in many fields these great scientists were also teaching, and many of the teachers below were also researching and publishing.)<p>My heart and admiration goes out to all these brilliant minds. It&#x27;s all due to the opportunity to learn, which was made available through the works and sacrifices of great teachers:<p>Ratz Laszlo has been portrayed in the article but there are more:<p>Sutak Jozsef, Arany Daniel, Konig Gyula, Farago Andor &amp; brother Laszlo, Bauer Mihaly, Jordan Karoly, Szele Tibor, Soos Paula, Varga Otto, Szasz Pal, Kunfalvi Rezso, Bakos Tibor, Szenassy Barna, Imrecze Zoltanne, Farkas Miklos, Rabai Imre, Posa Lajos, Pataki Janos, and the many unnamed dedicated and humane teachers who worked hard every day with every class.<p>(And not to forget Kulin Gyorgy, who founded amateur astronomy in Hungary and is the most important astronomy teacher and discoverer of our country.)<p>I wouldn&#x27;t know this much if not for the collected writings of Vekerdi Laszlo, a great historian of maths educators and mathematicians of the country and Szenassy Barna who wrote a huge monography.<p>Unfortunately there aren&#x27;t many good links in [EN] except for Wikipedia but I tried to extend on the part of the article that I think it is crucial for correct understanding and historical clarity. I wish I would have time to write a sentence or two about each of these names. I can&#x27;t do that right now but there are some great books in English to read for those who are interested.<p>How odd but how great. It&#x27;s a disaster and hard to quantify the loss caused by the fascistic decade or so.<p>And to the author, lastly: Thanks for spreading the word!