<p><pre><code>  &#62; At school, usually the vast majority of people is interested in games.
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"People" or "boys" ??  I'd be interested to know your basis for your assertion, and now that the question has been raised I'll start taking informal polls as I go out and give talks.  I do about 90 talks a year, and I'll see what the feedback is.<p>And in what aspect of games?  Being interested in playing various games is not the same as caring how they work, or caring about the idea that math is used in them.  I'm not saying that games can't or shouldn't be used as motivation, but I have grave doubts as to the ubiquity of the appeal that people here seem to be taking for granted. To some extent it's the extremity of the view to which I'm objecting.<p>chaosmachine earlier said:<p><pre><code>  &#62; All math classes should incorporate game programming
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I really can't believe that such an extreme view is a good thing. It would be akin to saying: Actually math isn't interesting in its own right, we really just need it to write really cool games.<p>Leaving aside that particular comment, I still think that tying math only to applications is a bad thing.  Motivation is essential, yes, but sometimes there's math that arises from the math, and only finds application much later, if ever.<p>In short, my personal feeling is that you're wrong that the vast majority of kids would be motivated by games, but I have no stats to back that up, just 25 years of giving talks to school kids.  Majority, maybe.  Substantial proportion, probably.<p>Far better to get the motivation by using math in a wide, wide range of applications.  It's motivation at all, and the sheer breadth that really matters.