Mathematics Education Through The Telescopic Lens Of A Girl — My Daughter
My daughter wrote this last evening, sitting on her bed, listening to music. Needless to say, my eyes welled up instantly — and stayed that way until the final word. She wrote it for her Speech class.
Raya Singh is a warrior empath. Only weeks ago, she spoke in front of hundreds of adults(with me) about her mental health — which included the scars from cutting her arms and legs, and how they will stay forever, reminding her of a period in her life where there was little light and hope.
Mathematics, for her, as final resting place, will always remain a beacon of unmistakable light and wonder…
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I know the majority of people in this room dislike, dread, or even hate math
I do as well, but the way it is taught in schools is what I really don’t like. However, I am fortunate enough to able to see math from a completely different angle and perspective, as well as learning as a whole, due to being lucky enough to grow up with a mathematician/teacher for a father. And no, that does not mean he corrects peoples change at grocery stores, or I was winning math competitions in elementary school.
In fact he is just your average middle aged man and I am just your average student. What having a mathematician for a dad does mean though, was that I got, and still get to see a side of math most kids my age will never get to see — the curious, creative, and this is hard to believe, but joyful side of math.
In school, math is taught like a set of rigid rules: memorize the formula, follow the steps, remember the process, and don’t ask why. In math class, we are taught how to do a certain problem but not why it is done this way, and if you ask your teachers I doubt they will be able to explain it to you. It begins to become this cold, and very mechanical process — something that we have to endure, not enjoy, because I know all of us hate walking into math class.
I watched myself, as well as some of my peers who are both very smart and bright individuals, shut down at the mere mention of a word problem, a quiz or a test. Not because we are incapable but because somewhere along the way, we were fed the toxic narrative that math is about being quick and getting the “right answer” all the time, or else you are genuinely considered stupid, and you start believing that maybe “Oh I’m not a math person”, but in reality that statement is false, for everyone.
My dad has never seen math that way, where it is only fit for some people, and with time as I grew older, being around my dad, it made me start to question everything I’d been taught in the classroom.
But at home, it is very different for me, I am able to see my dad get excited over a problem that had no immediate answer, yet. I’d hear him say, “Let’s just play with it,” “Play with the numbers and see what you get”, “This is simply your intuition”. And he made the hardest questions seem so simple and easy, in the smallest amount of steps, and still made it fun for me.
He brought back the curiosity and intuitiveness school math took away from me. He never made me feel small for not understanding. Instead, he made the mystery feel big enough for both of us to understand.(I highlighted this)
At home, I was able to see that real math is not about how quick you are to get the answer right, or how precise you are, or your ability to not make any arithmetic mistakes. Instead it is about being stuck, making mistakes, not getting the answer right the first time, trying something weird or new, and trying again, but especially– my father emphasizes understanding, even if I don’t end up getting the answer right due to one silly mistake by forgetting to put the negative 1 in, but knowing how I got to my final answer– it was an A+ in his books. He would sit with me, even if it took 30 minutes, even an hour, until I understood. My dad taught me that not knowing is actually apart of the process of learning — not something that should be looked down upon or ignored. Not knowing is not a sign of failure within you, but a sign of creativity and curiosity being brought out of you.
The contrast between school math and being taught by my dad changed everything for me.
It made me realize that what’s toxic about the way math is taught in many schools isn’t the subject itself — it’s the system of the way it’s taught. It’s the way teachers reward speed over thoughtfulness, obedience over curiosity. It’s the way we treat math like a test of intelligence instead of a tool that can be used in the real world. Students feel shame and doubt within themselves when they get a poor grade, or the wrong answer in math, since we do not value the real, meaningful truth math can bring. Why is it taught in a way that drains the potential joy out of it? Why are students made to feel like they either have the “mind for it” or they don’t, when the truth is, math isn’t necessarily a talent — it is a way of thinking, yet is it not nurtured the way it is supposed to be.
I am happy to say a few people in here remember my father getting invited to our elementary school — Gandatsetiagon, to teach math to my class once a year, Grade 1, 2, 3, and 4. The smiles on all of my peers faces is not something I will forget, as some of them still tell me to this day how much fun they had doing math those 2 hours when my father taught them. The sad thing is that they only got to experience that maybe 2 times at most, when I get to live it everyday. I realize I have a privilege, and will forever be grateful for it. I will be grateful for the days when he made teaching grade 12 math to my grade 4 self fun, and yes I understood most of it! I will be grateful for the times when I cried over poor grades on my math tests, but he was there to tell me it doesn’t matter, and that number or letter is on that test is meaningless and will never reflect my true capabilities.
Having a mathematician as a dad didn’t just make me better at math — it made me a rebel against the way math is misrepresented. It taught me that math is about intuition, creativity, logic, and play. Understanding this has opened me up to life changing opportunities as I recently spoke at a mental health summit in Alberta, about my own journey with math and how that tied to my mental health, and this September, I am going to Italy, to speak on a girls youth panel at a Global Math Summit.
Math should be full of wonder, it should be messy — like eating a peach — and it should bring out creativity in students, not diminish it within them. Every student, every kid, and everyone deserves to see the side of math my dad showed me and still does. And maybe if more classrooms and schools taught math that way — like my dad does — fewer students would grow up with the idea they’re “not math people,” and more would realize that math is way beyond something you just pass or fail.
So no, my dad did not drill me with equations and math questions, but he gave me something way more valuable — giving me the opportunity to see math not as something to conquer, but something to explore and be curious about, and that is what is missing in our classrooms.
Thank you.
