Talented and highly motivated high school students

Participants spend a major portion of each day actively engaged in doing mathematics (not simply learning the results of mathematics). The daily schedule includes 4 hours of morning classes (Mon-Sat), the pre-supper Prime Time Theorem, and evening problem sessions. The c. 15-student highly interactive classes are led by a senior mathematician and 2 grad students or undergraduate math majors. Afternoons are devoted to reading, rest, recreation, occasional trips to town, and informal study. Participants have unparalleled access to faculty members in classrooms, at meals, and in the program dorm.

Running a summer math program may be the most exhilarating, exciting, exhausting, and gratifying job there is in math education. We get to select our students, many of whom have never had math peers and most of whom are funny; we get to select teachers, most of whom have never had classes comprised entirely of bright students who love what they are doing, who have no other academic demands on them and no nearby parents, and who know their lives are being changed; we get to skim off the most beautiful pieces of our favorite mathematical disciplines; and we get to go to AIM workshops toshare with others who have tasted or conjectured the most exhilarating, exciting, exhausting, and gratifying job there is in math education. I've been enjoying summer math programs for all but 3 of the last 53 years. (I tend to avoid the word "camp" because the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Town of Amherst want camp operators to inspect playing fields for holes deeper than 2.718 inches, and they require that rules and conjectures be submitted 3.14 months in advance.) Someone else is going to have to write the history of summer math programs (I urged Arnold Ross to do so), but I'll indulge myself and take advantage of having peers who might tolerate some (17, I bet) random ramblings, senior citizen mutterings, musings, missions, and marginalia. Much of this will come to pass during my westward trek, so I may see you before you see it. Safe and happy travels. (8) When the NSF supported our programs (as "School Science Training Programs" pre-Reagan and "Young Scholars" post) they didn't encourage long-term tracking (which would have made obvious even to them the how outrageously cost-effective the programs were), but they did have students fill out before and after questionnaires. While completing the after one, one girl commented, "I'm answering all the questions the same way I did before, but the words all have different meanings now." A gratifying answer to the before questionnaire's "Why did you choose this program?": "Because it sounded as if if wanted students." High school kids choosing to spend a summer doing math are likely to study it in college. Occasionally we have a student recognize over the summer that they didn't like math as much as they thought they did--perhaps routine drill or competition were what turned them on. I regard that valuable discovery as a success for the Summer Studies, but the NSF interpreted the report of a lowered likelihood of a math major as a sign that the Summer Studies was driving students away from math. [Another story from NSF days is about the attack by a U.S.Representative from Illinois.] (14) Our first question is "What do you like to be called?" [You don't have to invite the person who writes, "To dinner".] The multi-stage application process is one of getting-to-know-each-other; occasionally we have to ask a parent to get out of the way. When mom or dad calls to find out if HCSSiM is appropriate for their child, it's worth a try to ask if child is available; in any event the best response is "Let's find out; have them apply." At the end of the Interesting Test, we ask applicants to share their comments on IT--they offer very telling, occasionally fatal. It probably matters only to me, but we send out invitations, not acceptances--I don't want to have to "reject" anyone. We post pictures of students by the 2nd day of the program and everyone has 1 week to learn all the names. (This is hardest on me, and means that we're not likely to expand too much.) (2) For 25 years (I blush to admit) I truthfully described the Summer Studies as a program that I loved for 6 weeks each year and hated for 46 weeks. It was during one of my 3 programless summers that I realized that there are professionals who order, label, find, and file things, return phone calls, remember appointments, prepare budgets and final reports, and otherwise support the illusion that I know what's going on. Advice: Hire Susan Goff. (7) Walter Feit did not discuss mathematics at home with his son. Paul conjectured in class one day the (false) converse of his father's Feit-Thompson theorem. (9) The Hampshire College library's summer hours do not include evenings or weekends. I've always budgeted for the purchase of books and for many years the books lived in my office year round. (We put yellow pig stickers on them as evidence of an HCSSiM contribution to HC.) When I asked if we could make the books available to HC students during the academic year and move them to the dorm for the summer is closed, I was told that they couldn't do that because the books (which they didn't have in the first place) might not all be returned. So we got a new College librarian. We now have students form a "book brigade" to pass the yellow pig collection across campus from the main library to our dorm. That way every student has held every book by the 2nd day of the Summer Studies. (6) A handful of things I hope to help happen: A compilation of best and worst ideas. A list of math resources we can share, e.g., with students we can't invite. An effort to get the MAA to recognize us; a SIGMAA for sure; a session at the JMM--perhaps one where some of our students do 5 minutes of "What I learned at Merry Math Camp"--the "So you want to be a mathematician" draws good audiences (though I object to the large cash prizes--it's sorta like paying high-school football players for each touchdown). I'd like to see more balance for the MAA's deep ties to competitive math--Math Circles is showing the way; it'd be a wise investment for MAA to give 1-year memberships to our students; I've regretted for their entire existence being unable to get to the Math Fests--the MAA should invite (and subsidize) participation by math camps near the Math Fest site (we're reserving a bus for the 2013 Math Fest in Hartford. Articles (or series or ads) NCTM's Mathematics Teacher--other places? [Computer stuff]