Everyone deserves 6 joyful math moments
An inspiring goal that will move us toward a better mathematical future
At a recent meeting of the wonderful math leaders in mathcommunities.org, our leader Brianna Donaldson challenged us to imagine what it would take to create 6 joyful math moments for every student this year. We divided up into three groups — elementary, middle school and high school, and poured out our ideas. More about our ideas in a moment.
I find this goal inspiring. It’s ambitious, but not unattainable. It’s simple, but with rich implications. It’s something each of us individually can do something about. And it has the power to galvanize all of us to work together toward a common goal — something I’ve wanted to see in the math education community.
As it turns out 6 joyful math moments is a perfect example of a Big Hairy Audacious Goal, what business management author Jim Collins calls a BHAG in his book Good to Great, about what it takes to be a great business leader.
I was reminded of this by my friend Leo Hourvitz, who among other things had the pleasure of working with Steve Jobs at Apple, Next and Pixar. Steve was all about terse audacious goals. And as Leo reports, Steve said that if you get people to buy into a singular vision, you don’t have to micromanage them.
Here are 6 ideas that came out of our brainstorm, and steps you can take right now to put these into action. Please share your stories in the comments.
Start by reflecting on your own joyful math moments. What has brought you math joy in your life? Was there a moment where you fell in love with math? Math joy means different things to different people, and we need to talk about. My earliest math joy was playing with wooden blocks when I was a child with my brother, and building geometric structures.
Teachers and parents need this just as much as kids. And when you feel joy, kids sense it. What would bring you math joy now? What’s something you’d like to learn, teach, make, or see? I’m looking forward to reading Matthew Macauley’s forthcoming book about visual group theory, which was inspired by the pioneering work of my friend Doug Hofstadter.
If you’re a parent, how can you make math joyous for your kids? When my childhood friend Rebecca Ifland asked me how to raise her kids to love math, I told her to go buy buckets of math manipulatives (pattern blocks, tangrams, polyhedral buildings kits…) from school suppliers like Lakeshore Learning for her kids to play with. She did, and it worked.
If you’re a teacher, how can you bring math joy into your classroom? You may not have time to deviate from the curriculum, but you can decorate your classroom with posters, polyhedral models and puzzles for kids to play with, like the many kid-friendly puzzles available from ThinkFun.
If you’re a student, don’t wait for school to bring the joy to you. Watch wacky math YouTubers like Vi Hart, go to the library and look up recreational math books, indulge your mathematical curiosity, make mathematical art. The good stuff is out there; you just won’t find it in school. For me, the library was where I learned about math history, puzzles, and the crazy creative things people were doing with math.
Finally if you’d like to bring math joy to your community, bring the Julia Robinson Math Festival to your school or community center. Don’t know where to start? Set up a free consultation at mathcommunities.org and learn what resources are available.
Bad math education robs us of the joy we can feel around math, especially for girls and groups who are told that math isn’t for them. Everyone deserves joyful math moments in their lives. Let’s make it happen.