To me, mathematics is a place of freedom. It is a way of sketching a dynamic blueprint, and with each blueprint, a new world can be built. Yet for a long time, openly loving it felt embarrassing, because mathematics was a walled garden to the people around me. It was an institution that excluded my peers with its foreign rules, conventions of unknown origins, and hierarchical implication structures.
In South Africa, this exclusion is rooted in the way mathematics was taught.
The public education system still maintained many of the pedagogical structures of colonialism. The singular 'method' reigned supreme, and symbolic violence and corporal punishment were commonplace. This congealed into the banking method, which exacerbated students' struggles in that it did not enable them to live and breathe mathematics. The institution metastasized into the conceptualization of mathematics as an exclusionary subject.
In public schools with overworked and underpaid teachers, there are rarely the resources to respond to students who think differently. That leaves learners with the demoralizing feeling of being in an enigmatic maze, beaten back whenever they try to walk through the bushes. Students need exposure to the deep underlying structure of mathematics, the roots they can follow out of any problem they have not seen before. Olympiad-style questions can be havens for exactly this, yet for most students they remain out of reach.
Creating a new institution is no easy task, but it is vital that we do it now.
The latent effects of the Covid pandemic have only sharpened that urgency. For many students, gaps in mathematics skills mean doors are closing on their aspirations. Too often that gets internalized as a personal failing, when in reality no one should be made to feel insipid for not memorizing when to apply hundreds of different formulas.
This is why I created Black Ink Mathematics: a site to tutor mathematics for free. It seeks to push students by exposing them to different ways of thinking about problems, rather than praising a single method.
It is vital that we keep a finger on the pulse of mathematics education, and that we are able to respond swiftly and directly to any arrhythmias that arise. We must build this out taking into account the structural barriers of data costs and loadshedding, so as not to leave those most vulnerable behind. It is this act of building new institutions founded on openness, on the principle that we may serve any who require help, that defines what it means to be a global citizen. That is incredibly powerful, because the institution of mathematics education is the bedrock through which the innovation and creation of other open institutions can be initiated, changing the cycle.
We are fighting poverty, and the institution of education is our greatest tool.
I listened to a lot of the white stripes when i was younger(specifically when i was struggling with math).
One song that really hit hard was Black Math.
These song lyrics really helped me. I hope they can help you too.
Go into nature and observe things.
I mean this very sincerely. Really look at the minute details of the world. Look at leaves their edges, veins, and curls. look at cracks in concrete and draw everything! by imagining it in your mind. Look at something and then see it with your eyes closed. rotate the shape in your mind and move it around. This beyond any other skill will lead to you getting incredibly good at math.
I guess what i am trying to say is seek out texture. And when you try to figure out what makes that texture so intricate. Oh and get enough sleep and play a lot in nature and with the ideas you think of. Life should just be one big game.
p.s. when i was younger i discovered this method my pressing my palms against my closed eyes in class. after around 15s you will start to see patterns that can get quite intricate.