New reports show our children are behind in mathematics, compared with where they would be after a normal year, with the sharpest declines experienced by the most vulnerable ones.

Math induces anxiety in kids, many lasting far into adulthood.

When our kids ask why they need to know algebra or trigonometry, we promise them that these tools will be useful. So students hold their noses and drink math medicine that may help in their technological futures.

Not only is this not true (I’ve never used algebra, much less trigonometry, in my daily life), it makes math dreary. Touting the usefulness of math for building spaceships makes one excited about the spaceships, not the math.

Humans relish the practical, but we also know that there is much more to life. As Aristotle said, knowledge begins with wonder, but what wonder is there in algebra or trigonometry or calculus?

Happily, unlocking the pleasure of math is simple: Do what mathematicians do and seek out unexplored, unknown, undiscovered math.

Regrettably, the mathematical journey is imagined as a formidable mountain: The wide base is arithmetic, the skills of adding and multiplying, accessible to everyone. Climbing higher brings us to algebra, geometry, trigonometry and eventually calculus and beyond.

In reality, math is alive and flourishing, and most of it remains a vast and uncharted countryside. Fresh ideas are constantly being discovered, opening up new and fascinating puzzles. These puzzles allow us to play at the very edge of the mathematical unknown, and many of them are accessible for our students.

Here’s one: Can every even number be written as a sum of two prime numbers?

Even numbers such as 8, 16 and 30 can be written as 3 + 5, 5 + 11, and 7 + 23. But can this be done for every even number? No one knows.

With a vacation from math utility, and into wonder, it might be possible to spark mathematical joy in our children in this COVID-19 darkness as they begin a new school year.

Satyan Linus Devadoss is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and professor of applied mathematics at the University of San Diego.