Many have told me how inspired they have been by the story of Christopher Jackson, who discovered a love for mathematics in a federal penitentiary. Chris is a featured contributor to Mathematics for Human Flourishing and his letters reveal his progression over several years. They also drive home the message of the book in many layered ways. Chris and I correspond regularly. He was excited when the book came out, and together with some other mathematicians, we worked on a research project that st

If this is really how math is done, then why isn't it taught that way at every level?

For them the videos were a grace they didn’t have to earn. I like to tell them the struggle is the more interesting place to be: because a healthy confusion is where the real learning begins. In fact, failing a student CAN be done with grace, so that the student understands their dignity has not been tarnished even though their work has been justly assessed---just as a parent can discipline her child if the child knows her love is unconditional. Grace is precisely what makes hard conversations possible, and productive, between people. But you have to extend the grace first. One of my students said to me, so gently: “Should I be terminally ill later in life, I would want my son to act as you have.”

Mathematics makes the mind its playground. And teaching play is hard work! It’s actually harder than lecturing because you have to be ready for almost anything to happen in the classroom, but it’s also more fun. It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul. I would like to encourage institutions to start valuing the public writing of its faculty. More people will read these pieces than will ever read any of our research papers. I now explicitly say on my exams that I will give extra credit on incomplete proofs where students acknowledge their gaps. I get much more thoughtful answers that way. So let me encourage all of us to try having these conversations, to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and quick to forgive each other when we say something stupid. That’ll happen if you start to have conversations, and we just have to have grace for each other if we make mistakes—it’s better than not talking. I sometimes wish graduate school admissions would remember this too: “Background is not the same as ability.” As my friend Bill Velez says: If you want your Ph.D. program to have more students of color, then you have to stop admitting students on the basis of background and start admitting students by their ability. And then, support them. And he said, “I would rather see you work with me, than quit.” Web Mirror: https://mathyawp.wordpress.com/2017/01/08/mathematics-for-human-flourishing/