Another Round

Exhausted and hungry, I walk to the restaurant a hundred feet from the hotel's lobby. The hostess greets me and asks how my day has been. I tell her it's been a long day, that I just came in from LA on a 5-hour-plus flight. She asks about my reason for being in Philadelphia. I tell her I'm here for a math conference, and she volunteers, "Oh... I'm not a big math person.”

I follow her to my table and want to say:

What the fuck does that even mean that you're not a big math person??? Are you a small or minuscule math person then?!? I don't care if you say that you're not big on eating raw octopus or fried worms, but math??!!

Her nonchalant proclamation is the last thing I want to hear this evening. She doesn't know that her words form the straw that breaks my mathematical patience's back. I am hungry, how dare she! She doesn't know that I hear the likes of that statement each and every time people learn I'm a math teacher.

I think about my keynote at 8 AM tomorrow.

So many people don’t like math — they are just not big math people.

My annoyance at her words quickly turns into sadness and guilt. I know I have students who may utter the same words leaving my class. While I believe I have made great strides in improving math learning and math teaching in my classroom, I haven't done enough, there's still a lot of work to do.

I can do better and I will, I get another round of teaching mathematics starting on August 22.

Have a restful summer, everyone.