I don’t know the path to a world in which there are no more mass shootings. But if we arrive in a world in which they’ve stopped, I can tell you a few of the necessary conditions that were met. First, we figured out that there are no easy answers…

A few years ago I read Jo Boaler’s book, “Mathematical Mindsets” and I thought it contained some good ideas. There were a few things that I thought were not realistic or would be difficult to scale, but overall I found the book useful. Our department read it together, and I…

The last week was heartbreaking as anyone with an internet connection could watch George Floyd be executed by a police officer in Minneapolis. I experienced a wide range of emotions, ranging from sadness to anger to disgust and frequently a mash-up of them all. We witnessed a white American execute…

I have a couple concerns regarding “Social Justice Math” that I don’t think I’ve seen addressed. (If they have been, please let me know.) From what I’ve read SJM is billed as a way to bring real world problems into the classroom with a “justice” lens. Problems related to climate…

I sketched this out as a Twitter thread, thought it might be better as a Medium post, and posted it in both places. Also, I was too lazy to turn into a narrative structure here. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ve noticed in the last couple of months discussions about whether educators should or…

My students in precalculus class have asked a few different times over the last couple of weeks, “When will I need this?”. I encourage them to ask this question of their teachers, because the teacher should be able to answer it. …

In his conversation with Dave Rubin and his brother Eric, Bret Weinstein says that seeing the world through a game theoretic lens gives you a more fundamental understanding of the world. When asked later about the parts of game theory he’d recommend learning, he listed seven. …

A couple of weeks ago the Trump administration decided, after recommendation from the bipartisan U.S. International Trade Commission, to raise tariffs on washing machines and solar cells. If you’re like me and simply read the NPR and New York Times (or some other popular media outlet) article then you probably…

Representative Moolenaar, You are in power at a unique time in history, to say the least. The precipice that our country is teetering on may be lost on many who can barely catch their breath between the news cycles, but this is not true for many wise observers of the…