One of the (many) blogs I subscribe to, “PhD Talk” recently had an entry titled “Who am I to speak up.” While it had to do with the author’s encounter with the Imposter Syndrome as she worked on her research, it spoke to me as I considered both my own PhD research (Imposter syndrome writ large!) but also my role within the larger educational community.
There is a reluctance on the part of independent school teachers to engage too readily with the outside world. For one, it is a competitive environment for students, especially in this economy. If we share the best of what we are doing, then others benefit from our expenditures. Fortunately my school has always had the spirit of openness and sharing and has encouraged us to share whatever we have or created with others. We’re also a bit of a closed society; everything is very self-contained. We’ll often joke about how we seldom know what is going on in the real world. But, I will endeavour to share what I have collected over the past twenty years of teaching. It will not be perfect but that’s not entirely the point, is it?
Secondly, there is a strong public school / Catholic school community in Ontario in line with the teachers’ union through which most of the educational change discussion is filtered. The voice of independent schools is a slight whisper from the back of the chorus. It’s not a discussion table I get invited to; this has been particularly noticeable in my work at the university this past year. It’s also stung, when my registrations have been declined for online and summer programs in Ontario because of which students I teach. I don’t think we ever get out of high school — you have to learn to make your own friends and let the cliques to their own.
So it was interesting to find myself, a Canadian, deeply involved in a discussion of the Common Core State Standards with a wide assortment of teachers at PCMI this summer. It is a fascinating time during which we see the American school system try to re-invent itself to match more closely the approach taken in Ontario, at least as far as mathematics is concerned. I look forward to seeing how the Mathematical Practices, intended to be the tail that wags the dog of the “Standards”, negotiates with the American addiction to standardized testing.
That experience, to be recounted later, of thinking about and discussing with others the intent and ramifications of this approach to mathematics education reminded me that my intent has never been to change the world but only to change myself. To make my own understanding more clear and thus my work with others more profitable for them. That those others may turn out to be Americans rather than those in Ontario is merely an accident of geography, I suppose.
——————————
Changing the world is too big. But I can do small things… and I’m a Calculus teacher. I know small things add up. So my goal is to publish some small bit each workday over this month before school starts anew to try to get into the habit. (I can’t commit to the weekend as it is often consumed by volunteering.)
For those Americans who may read this, Monday was a holiday.
