Parenting With A Purpose
Donna Janel Williams, a Chester native is on a mission to bring back the responsibility, nobility, and beauty back to parenting. Parenting With A Purpose show aims to reach, teach and propel single mom, single dads, married, divorced, adopted, and foster parents all over the world with engaging conversations to help parents raise up successful leaders. Donna Janel believes parents are the bows and children are the arrows and they will land in the direction we aim them.
Parenting With A Purpose
Unlocking Potential: Math as a Tool for Empowerment
Join us as we welcome Akil Parker, a passionate trailblazer in math education who is transforming how we perceive and engage with mathematics. Akil's journey from a high school math teacher to founding All This Math is both inspiring and informative, and he’s on a mission to make math accessible and meaningful for the Black community. Through innovative platforms like YouTube, Akil is blending math education with Black history, offering a fresh perspective that challenges stereotypes and empowers learners. His insights into the importance of parental involvement and community support in breaking down educational barriers are essential for any parent or educator committed to fostering success in math and beyond.
As we delve into the pervasive issue of math anxiety, Akil provides a roadmap for overcoming this common hurdle. He shares how fear and avoidance of math can limit career opportunities, especially in STEM fields, and highlights the systemic factors that perpetuate these fears. Rather than simply offering advice, Akil emphasizes equipping parents and guardians with tangible resources to help their children thrive in mathematics. His dedication to addressing historical and systemic educational inequalities is a powerful call to action for all of us to question and reimagine the structures that uphold power imbalances. This conversation is a compelling exploration of how mathematical literacy is intertwined with economic empowerment and social justice.
The episode also reflects on the evolving nature of math education, from its critical role in developing problem-solving skills to its broader applications in daily life. Through personal anecdotes, Akil highlights generational shifts in math education and the importance of adapting teaching methods to meet the needs of future generations. We explore the challenges parents face today in nurturing resilience and critical thinking in a world dominated by technology. Akil's thought-provoking discussion underscores the vital role of parents as primary educators and advocates for a collective effort to transform math into a tool for empowerment and lifelong learning. This episode is a rich tapestry of insights, stories, and practical advice that promises to reshape how we approach math education and community empowerment.
Parents are the Bows and Children are the Arrows they will land wherever we aim them eventually!
Thank you. Outro Music. I just heard that. Hey everybody, welcome back to Parenting with a Purpose. I am your host, donna Janelle, and.
Speaker 2:I'm your co-host, Pamela, and today we have a special guest. His name is Akil Parker. He's going to give us a little details about himself, starting off a little background what he does for a living. You go ahead and bust that out.
Speaker 3:Yes. So first of all, thank you for inviting me out here so we can have this very important conversation about mathematics and education and how parents can become more involved in their children's education. My name is Akil Parker. As you said, I'm a black man that is trying to play his part in the black community and teach math to our people, to overall improve the relationship between mathematics and the black community, because math is such an important tool that we often are kind of convinced from a very early age that is either too difficult or irrelevant and a lot of us kind of run away from it and stay away from it as a result, because we buy into that propaganda, that negative propaganda about it, and I want better for our people. So that's why I do the work that I do through my company. All this math, um, that's why I do the work that I do through my company. All this, all this math and all this math. We started in like 2017 after I had been teaching since 2005. I've been a high school math teacher since 2005.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And, um, yeah, so you know, I decided to become more official and I started a math tutor, the math tutoring business, and then that grew into like educational consulting work and teacher coaching and developing resources, and I ended up writing a book, you know, which is another resource for parents called how to Use All this Math, volume One.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 3:Where I take everyday activities and just show, like you know, how parents can use that as a way to, you know, prepare their children for math class. Basically, you know, because a lot of children that's another reason children don't do as well in school and math because they go in cold, right, they're not prepared already. They get, you know, overwhelmed by a lot of new topics and new math vocabulary and this and that, and you know so. So, yeah, so you know we also, you know, produce resources and and also we have a YouTube channel too. You know the All this Math YouTube channel that you know I hope everybody you know taps into and subscribes to and uses on a regular basis, because there's no other YouTube channel like it.
Speaker 3:You know, there's no other YouTube channel where you're going to find a black man very proficient teaching math and also you get black history lessons in the videos too. So in the beginning I might have like a Malcolm X hoodie hoodie on, you know, and then I might talk about malcolm x a little for the first 60 seconds and then, and then we, then we start solving equations, you know, or simplifying exponent expressions or something like that you know. So you get both at the same time, like you know. So, um, I'm just trying to just help our people win, you know, through, through math Wow, that's good.
Speaker 2:That was a mouthful. I'm going to say that again.
Speaker 1:That was a mouthful. That was a mouthful. That was excellent. That was a mouthful.
Speaker 3:I see that you did this. I did it again, so I have a question Kale.
Speaker 1:So what made you venture off into all this math? What prompted that? What triggered that? What made you say you know what? I need to do something besides just teaching this here in the school, in this educational setting, but taking the educational setting outside of the four walls. What made you, what was it?
Speaker 3:so it was kind of like a natural progression because as a math teacher and I'm sure all math teachers can attest to this you end end up kind of like you have a natural side hustle as a math tutor.
Speaker 3:anyway, Because, people always come ask you can you help my child with this, can you help my child with that? And if you have time, you kind of just do it. But I decided I wanted to become more formal with it. But, more to your point, it was a natural progression. But at the same time I realized that I wanted to reach more students and I also learned that, you know, just kind of just watching education and how it was changing like back in like 2017 and 2018. And I kind of like the things that are happening right now, I seen it coming Like. I seen I seen things going in this direction, you know. So I was trying to get out in front of it and I wanted to reach more people. So I realized that, you know, with tutoring, you know I could kind of like control my schedule, control my time, um, still use my skill set and help people, and you know. And also, you know I've also, in addition to the tutoring, like we also, you know, teach in like homeschool collectives. So if there's like a group of people that are like homeschooling their children, they want to like hire a math teacher, you know. So I've done that, that type of work as well, you know and work with some some online programs, some online homeschool programs, where I've been the math teacher for that there as well.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I really just wanted to expand my reach, right, cuz like, when I left the School District of Philadelphia in 2018, I was teaching at Overbrook at the time, over in West Philly, and you know, I had like five sections, like maybe two sections of Algebra 1 and like three sections of Geometry and, matter of fact, no, like two sections of Geometry. I think I had like a stats section too, with some seniors, but it was like, I don't know, that might have been no more than like 100 students. So I was like affecting 100 students At least, I don't know that might have been no more than like 100 students. So I was like affecting 100 students. Um, at least I hoped I was affecting 100 students, um, but you know, on the internet now, it's like, you know, you could literally reach millions, right, you know?
Speaker 3:So I'm like, and it's the same, I got the same skills. You know that I can and I can teach the same way in the same topics, you know, and I don't got to worry about, like you know, know, classroom disruptions. You know, when I'm in my house recording, recording my video content. That's the same quality that I would provide when I was in the classroom. You know, I could just go, I could just flow and just do my thing and if a student doesn't understand, like in real time, they can't pause me and rewind me Right On my YouTube channel.
Speaker 3:you can pause me and rewind me, like whenever you want to you know, so yeah, to answer your question, like I just wanted to expand my reach and just reach more people and you know, I felt confined in the classroom and I couldn't really move how I really, you know, wanted to move.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, so that's kind of why why, like, I decided to build all this man felt because, like, when I first started it, I didn't really know what my, what, my, what my goals really were for it. I just knew I'm, like, you know, it just started out just as like a humble little tutoring business and then it kind of just grew and one you know things, one thing led to another, and then I was like, well, I could do this and I could do that, and I could do this and I could do that. And then these people need this, these people need that, and people start reaching out to me. And that's the point I'm at now where, like you know, whereas before I was really aggressively reaching out to a lot of people and I still reach out to people, right, but now people are finding out about me and like reaching out, so it's like it's coming back now you know.
Speaker 1:so I'm at that stage. So yeah, do you see, now that you're in this sector of it versus being in the actual school district or anything, do you see an increase in parental involvement or kind of the same?
Speaker 3:I think it's about the same, which is unfortunate, which is why another reason I do the work that I do because one of the things I want to do is, like you know, come on platforms like this and like talk to parents about you know, first of all, you know, remind them that they should be more involved, but not only that, like provide resources and like have different conversations about parental involvement, because I realize that a lot of the conversations about parental involvement, especially in the black community, it's kind of like a finger overall, like a finger wagon type of thing. It can be very condescending and even me, if somebody's telling me what I should do, if you don't tell me in a certain way, even if I know I should do it, I might not like how you're talking to me. If I don't like how you're talking to me, then I'm not going to do it. So I try to like have different conversations around parental involvement and have it in a different way and also provide resources, because it's easy for me to say to somebody like because you know I'm a person I taught math for 20 years and I teach math on a college level and from kindergarten through 12th grade for the most part.
Speaker 3:I was really strong in math. I had some rough patch, but I was really strong in math, so it's easy for me to say like y'all should be doing this, y'all should be doing that, but you got to provide the resources.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that part.
Speaker 3:So back to the YouTube channel. I'm like look, I want mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers and uncles and aunties and everybody to be able to help children with their homework when they get home, whenever they see him. But you need to know how to do the homework first that part as an adult.
Speaker 3:You got to know how to do it, because it can't be the blind leading the blind. So that's why I make the video content on the YouTube channel, so you can just say, all right, I'm going to go to this YouTube channel. You know, I like how this brother talk, or whatever he explains, he makes it make sense, and then I can help you with your, your homework, you know. And now at this point we got like over 800 videos, ranging from ranging from arithmetic up to calculus, and we bought the. We pushing, we pushing, like 6 000 subscribers. We're about to hit 6 000 what do you think um?
Speaker 1:why do you think parents have fear with math?
Speaker 3:oh, because when they were children, they had fear with math. That's what I think for both, for a lot of people like, and the thing is, it's like you, like you know I want to be very clear about that too Like it's a very systemic thing, right, it's very systemic. Like we're programmed to fear math, we're programmed to hate math, we're programmed to try to stay away from math. And I believe that is two main reasons why that is Number one if the moment that you say as a person, even as a child, math is too hard, math is too difficult, math is irrelevant, you've also said, without realizing it, that I'm not going into a STEM field, I'm not going to be a doctor, I'm not going to be an engineer, I'm not going to be a computer scientist, because math is the gatekeeper for all of those professions. So, as soon as you can, so if you got to also think about how America is structured. It's a capitalist system.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:It's a dog eat dog world. Everybody can't win. In this system, everybody can't win. I know a lot of times we act like everybody can win, but that's unrealistic. In Everybody can't win. I know a lot of times we act like everybody can win, but that's unrealistic.
Speaker 3:In this circuit, this current system, everybody can't win. There's got to be a lot of losers and a few people winning at the top. That's how the system is set up, right. So, in order for those that want to continue to win, they want to have less competition and they want to have a competitive advantage. So, for the people that have, you know, certain amounts of resources and whatnot, if they say, like you know what, well, I want my child to be an anesthesiologist when they grow up, ok, there's a certain amount of opportunities, a certain amount of anesthesiologists that will be able to work in the United States. So then, but if you have, like, literally millions of black children that are like, know what, math is too hard, but math is the gatekeeper, those are millions of children that those people that have plans for their children to be anesthesiologists do not have to compete with right, right they like math is too hard, so like, no, I don't gotta worry about y'all.
Speaker 3:So every time your child says, like math is too hard, why I gotta do this, what's the point?
Speaker 3:When am I ever going to use this in life? You're actually disqualifying yourself from competition and a lot of parents actually because I think, because a lot of parents had their own negative experiences with schooling and with math classes they feel like they're protecting their child from that, the hurt that they experience, because they feel triggered, I think sometimes. So they kind of a lot of parents kind of pass on this, like this math anxiety, to their children. And a lot of parents don't really recognize when they do that because, like, when your child comes home with the homework and then they say, well, mom, can you help me with this? Dad, can you help me with this? Like, and then you kind of like don't act very like aggressive or assertive or like confident, they notice that they read your body language, they, they read, they read everything, they read that what you're communicating to them. So then it kind of makes them feel like, well, damn, like, my mom don't do this, my dad don't do this, why should I be doing this? Right?
Speaker 1:I want to backtrack something. Um, when you said that the system is set up, um, like the parents, the reason why parents have fear, because that's something that they had in childhood can you explain that a little bit more of how the system is set up for us? Not to like math, um, and I'm thinking that, if I'm thinking what you're thinking, you're thinking even if we go back to like slavery and all that, um, in regards to math, can you elaborate on how you, how you feel the system is set up for us now?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, like I said, this is monopoly capitalism. That's the economic system we exist within, that's the political system, that's the social system.
Speaker 3:It's about scarcity and artificial scarcity because, it's really enough for everybody to have plenty, but you got people that have access to resources and hoard the resources to make it seem like it's not enough for everybody. It's plenty, right, but they control the resources. So it's like there's this myth and this idea and this image that it's not enough for everybody, even back in, like you mentioned, like during chattel slavery, right, oftentimes, you know, we learn about Frederick Douglass and, like you know, reading and how, like you know, it was how it was illegal to teach an enslaved African to read and everything, but I'm certain that we weren't allowed to be able to do mathematics either.
Speaker 2:Because math is just as important.
Speaker 3:Because math is a language in and of itself. When you think about fast forward after the Civil War, when sharecropping becomes a thing which is just another iteration of chattel slavery.
Speaker 3:Right, a lot of our ancestors are getting taken advantage of because the landowner is like well, no, you owe me this much, you really owe me that much. So then it's like you're perpetually in bondage, like year after year after year. But if that black man, that black woman don't know understand those formulas that that man is presenting to them, then they have no choice but to just say, oh, ok.
Speaker 2:And it can be changing every time Exactly.
Speaker 3:Right, so you keep people illiterate, not only illiterate of the English language, but illiterate to the language of mathematics, right? Like, even when you talk about I could veer off a little bit and even talk about how you know rappers or athletes that Well, let's say rappers, because people always talk about how the rappers sign deals and they didn't know what they were signing. They didn't read the contract. It's not really a, it's a reading issue, but it's a mathematical issue, because all a contract is is a long math word problem.
Speaker 1:Right Any contract you sign.
Speaker 3:If there's money involved, there's an equation, there's some formula, there's percentages. If you don't understand the language of mathematics, you're going to get taken advantage of, absolutely Right. So this is all systemic. So when people say things like school should teach this and school should teach that, it kind of says to me that they don't really understand where they are.
Speaker 3:They don't understand what America really is, because it's like something Assata Shakur said like and I'm like paraphrasing what she said but like you know, your oppressor is never going to give you the tools to become free or to take to remove them from power, right? So you know all these positive things, like you know providing, like you know, not just financial literacy to children, but economic literacy, right, because A lot of the financial literacy that our children need are like defense mechanisms so they can protect themselves from being taken advantage of in this economic system. But if we got to do all this to protect ourselves and be on the defensive all the time, somebody should stand up and say well, wait a minute, what's up with this system? Why do we live in a system where I constantly got to protect myself from being taken advantage of by a store owner or a car dealer or somebody trying to rent me a house or rent an apartment like why is? Why is this system set up like that? Maybe we need to have a larger conversation about moving into a different system, right, but of course they don't want that neither right but, if you start asking because then you're asking too many questions right, then you become
Speaker 3:a problem, right, but it goes back to having mathematical understanding, because with the mathematical understanding this is my other point and beyond, not just not being able to compete for STEM jobs and STEM careers there's the issue of problem solving and critical thinking. The thing a lot of young people don't understand and even, like a lot of teachers, I think, don't understand or some teachers understand it but don't verbalize it explicitly to students which is that you know, one of the things you're doing when you're doing a math problem or any math problem, is you're developing your critical thinking ability. You're developing your problem solving ability and like because kids would be like man, I ain't never going to be in a grocery store. I have to use the Pythagorean theorem, or quadratic formula.
Speaker 3:That's what they say Right, have to use the pythagorean theorem or quadratic formula. That's what they say right. But they don't know because they're looking at only at the surface level. Right deeper within that, when you're sitting in a classroom in the ninth grade, 10th grade, whatever, and you don't, you're using a quadratic formula. You're using pythagorean theorem to figure something out to solve a problem. You're training your brain how to solve problems exactly and that could be transferred to any situation you're gonna be.
Speaker 3:you're're going to be in a situation with your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your husband, your wife, your supervisor at your job, somebody in traffic, somebody trying to get over on you, right. Whatever you need to know problem solving. Problem solving is problem solving. If you could do it in an algebra two class or geometry class, you could do it in your personal life and a lot of people we notice they have problems because they don't know how to solve problems right, so what? Happens when you can't solve a problem it persists it persists and then it grows.
Speaker 3:It's like it's like a toothache. You got a toothache, you don't do nothing about it. Your tooth gonna get worse, then it's gonna start rotting. Then you have to get it pulled out. Then you get an infection, then you might have nerve damage. It just gets worse and worse and worse. But because we never learn how to solve problems. So the math class is the class where you really get to learn how to solve problems. But I don't think nobody is really saying that to children.
Speaker 3:Ain't nobody saying that, nobody thinking about it like that Because we get so caught up in the X's and the Y's and the Z's and everything, and the thing is, again, it's again, it's also. It's about competition. So a lot of people just sit back and be like all right, all y'all sitting up here talking about this is this is useless, cool, all right, y'all not going to be able to compete with us.
Speaker 2:That's the more we get to count out.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that you said that, because I had this conversation with my son. He's 16 and he was saying you know, he doesn't really like. He can do math really well, he just doesn't like it. And he was like I don't understand why I'm not going to use this when I'm adult. I was like you're 16. You don't even know what you're going to use when you're adult. Right, right, that too Like.
Speaker 1:I tried to tell him like bro, like you're only 16. You got a whole life to live. I'm a nurse by trade, so I'm like we use algebra, we use all this stuff that you say that you don't think that you need when you're. He was like, yeah, but I'm not going to be a nurse and doctor.
Speaker 1:I said but even just when you talk about critical thinking and problem solving and that's what I said to him I said, even everyday life, when you think about problem solving, you got to be able to maneuver, move something in this place to that place, to that, and bring it all together. You got to be able to think about it. And he was like, yeah, but like why can't they just say five plus five? I'm like because that's the easiest way, that's the simplest way, but don't you want to know more? Why does this equal this? Because growing up, you know well, we're not my age, but uh, I don't know how about you akil, but growing up, oh yeah, we same age then so growing up in school, they never taught us why certain things, why were they?
Speaker 1:they just like five plus five equal five, and they always make it seem like it's only one way that it equals.
Speaker 1:Uh, that right, they didn't show you the different ways and if you thought outside of the box, they told you your paper was wrong. Like you get dinged for not doing it the way they wanted you to do it. At least what I recall in school if I did a math problem a different way but I got the right answer, they told me it was still wrong because I didn't do it the way that they they said it needs to be done and I used to think that that's crazy, like if it's still equal in the same thing, it's multiple ways to skin cat like. But even growing up they weren't accepting all those different ways, so they never really explained to us math. Really. They just say this is it and this is what we said. Now we have this generation where math is getting explained in all different types of ways and I think that's why parents are scared and nervous and have so much fear is because as a child we didn't get that unless you searched and did something different yeah the school system was not giving you that.
Speaker 1:And then a lot of our parents were illiterate, like just the way that they grew up, like a lot of didn't. You know, my mom didn't graduate from high school. I remember teaching my mom how to even read the Daily Times. Now, you know I'm reading the Inquirer, but I'm teaching her how to read the Daily Times. So just certain things like that, and it becomes so fearful and I don't even know how to help my child because I don't know how, unless you went to college, right, unless you went to college and I've learned so much in college than I did the whole 12 years of going to school, wow. And I thought that that was really crazy, because even in college they're explaining to you why this is and I'm like this is what I used to try to do when I was younger and I was told I was wrong. So then when I went to college and started doing math in college, I tried to do it the old way and they're like no, there's another way. I'm like no, that's wrong.
Speaker 1:I'm telling the professor he like what you talk about that's not what they said when I argue with them, but in reality it's like I I knew it was something different, but because the way that the educational system was structured it shut me down of thinking outside of their box. Yeah, yeah, and I think that's what happens with a lot of people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I definitely think. Like you know, people need more options Like the quote unquote, new math or the common core math. It provides different options for like how to solve problems. You know and and and and, exercising different options. It helps you to gain a better overall understanding of math generally because you start to see the connections, like there's no better feeling than like well, there are some better feelings, but it's a very good feeling when you can solve a problem one way, get one answer. Solve a problem another way, get the same answer. Solve a problem another way, get the same answer.
Speaker 2:I would agree.
Speaker 3:And then you see the consistency. That's when you start to get into the beauty of math. That's where you start to get into the beauty of math. That's where you start to really like math, really love it.
Speaker 3:A lot of people are good at math and don't really love it. That's another issue too, because for some people it's just like a necessary evil. It's just like a class you want to take, you got to take it. So it's like oh, it's math class, All right, I'm good at this too, because I didn't say this earlier, I don't think it's mandatory for our children to go into STEM, but I think it's mandatory for it to be an option, Because for so many of us it's not even an option For so many of our children so many people go to. I mean, I had peers when I went to college, Like they went to college not knowing what they wanted to major in. So how'd they pick a major? They said, uh, give me the major where I gotta take either no math or at least the amount of math yeah yeah, that's what I'm a major, right?
Speaker 3:so many people do that like and these people might have, might have been excellent physicians, might have been excellent registered nurses, excellent computer scientists, architects, computer engineers, all those those fields, and those may never have majors where you got to go up to calculus three, like differential equations or something like that, but because of their, their feelings about math and their experiences with math, they disqualify themselves from it. Right, and, like I said, I don't think it's accidental. And one thing that compounds the problem is these smartphones, because now, what children can also say and adults say the same thing is why I gotta know what I could just ask, or I could ask alexa when I'm in my house, or I could just google it like bro the the thing is, the computer is supposed to be a tool that's controlled by the human being right, say that again.
Speaker 3:The computer is supposed to be a tool that's controlled by the human being. We're putting ourselves, willingly and happily putting ourselves in a position to be controlled by the computer. Right, the computers are taking over our lives. We're supposed to control the computer, right? People say, oh, you can chat, gpt that, or you can, like, you know, go on one of these apps where you can just take a picture of the problem and it'll like photo math or something like that, and it'll like give you step by step, but you're not learning it Right, you're not learning how to do it Right, and you're putting yourself at the mercy of technology. Right, and I think that we should actually you should, we should want to know how to do stuff Right.
Speaker 2:You should just want to know how to do stuff Right. Shouldn't be happy, almost like a dead brain?
Speaker 1:yeah, we should be, we shouldn't be happy to be dumb like we're coming ourselves down wait, remember that thing just happened with the airlines right, and a whole system like was down, like there was no flights or anything like that.
Speaker 1:And I was saying I was like I wonder if it's just because we depended on technology so much and once the technology shut down, the human brain didn't know what to do. Like they're so smart people that first of all human brains built the computers. So you don't think that you're smarter than a computer, which is right To me. This don't make sense, wow. But I was saying to myself I said I bet you, if somebody just knew what the computer knew or activated what the computer knew, like we wouldn't have had that whole billions of dollars, all these airplanes. Yeah, I was like somebody's just not using their brain effectively. And that's exactly what I said, cause I was like ain't no way that the world could be shut down from computers. This doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1:I remember this is crazy Cause I'm gonna let you touch on that, but I remember probably about 10 years ago I was taking my kids to pennsylvania up in the mountains and I took them to crystal caves, right, the um, the gyms and things like that. And I had, we had the phone and the gps was on the phone, but I also printed out like seriously printed out map quest. But here lies the problem. I left my papers home no, no, seriously, because I knew I was like technology Ten years ago. I'm like technology. Look, if you're out in the mountains you might not get signals and things like that.
Speaker 1:And something told me I printed out the whole thing but I left it home. So let me tell you, I'm out there in the mountains, gps signal's going. I have no way. I'm going around the circle, I see all these horses and I see all these cows and I literally like five hours lost up there because I did not know how to get. And you, you didn't see people, like you're out there in the farmland. So what I did was I was able to call my sister and I had my sister pull it up and she I had to literally tell her exactly where I was and she actually navigated me through that whole how to get back to a highway, like she. It was the craziest thing and I said I the way that we depend on technology is utterly ridiculous. But I knew I needed that map quest, but I left it home. So you know I don't do that no more. Let me tell you I don't leave that at home Like I'm printing stuff out, do it still exist Like seriously.
Speaker 3:That's a good question. She said does this map still exist? That's a good question, it does.
Speaker 1:Also, wade, you can print out your whole Google. You can print all that out. Print out your directions.
Speaker 2:Another thing I want want to add too about that is that you know, and people often talk about, like you know, these kids these days, and these kids are different and I think I think kids are kids. Um, fundamentally they're not different from my, our generation, like when we were children right start.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to feel left out. I don't want you to feel left out.
Speaker 3:It's okay, but, like a lot of stuff, we didn't have the technology, so we had to think. You know, think things through and figure stuff out.
Speaker 3:What that does is, like, you know, because everything is, there's an opportunity cost for everything, right? So when there's more technology, there's more luxury, right, you're still losing something. You gain something, but you're losing something. Just like a person that, like, let's say, they had to travel to work and they had to walk a mile to the bus stop or the train station and then take the train or take the bus, and then, coming home from work, they had to do the same thing. So they're getting exercise every day, five days a week. Then they get a car. Now all. Now, all of a sudden, they're not getting exercise no more. Right, the car is more convenient, it's warmer, more comfortable. They don't got to sit on the bus with other people. They can have their alone time, listen to their music, driving to work and from. That's a gain, but there's also a loss, right. So the question is how do you make up for that loss? So, hopefully so. Then that person. Now you, you can. Or early in the morning before you go to work, right? Same thing with the children.
Speaker 2:Back to that problem solving.
Speaker 1:That's a problem solving going on right now.
Speaker 3:So with the children, like you know, even like things like I remember being young and like I might not have had a digital clock in my house, you only have, might have only had analog clocks. So every time I'm trying to tell what time it is, I'm practicing my five multiplication facts.
Speaker 3:Right, because if the long hand is pointing to the six, I want to know how many minutes it is. I got to do six times five, right, get 30. If the long hand is pointing to the nine, I'm doing nine times five, 45 minutes, right. So just little things like that that add up that children today don't have to do, right? So, as parents, this is what I definitely want to implore and encourage parents to do Start thinking about ways that we use math when we were young right. That our children don't have to use math today, and figure out ways to replace that practice, because the children aren't getting practice.
Speaker 3:I want parents to think about ways that in our generation, when we were children we had to use math to figure things out, to do things we wanted to do.
Speaker 3:Right, like maybe no, okay, well, I know if I could be outside until this time and then. But we going over here, I got to make sure I get home in time because I don't want to be beaten or whatever. Right, I got to be home by curfew. We had to do math to figure that out, right. But our children may not have to do that because of the technology they have access to. They got iPhones now, so the iPhone does all the thinking for them. So we have to think about how can we replace the opportunity because it is an opportunity, that's an important word being able to practice thinking and problem solving. That's an opportunity that everybody don't have. Right, we want to create those opportunities for our children. How do we create opportunities for our children to think critically and problem solve and use mathematics?
Speaker 2:that we had because we had to do it right, because we didn't have a choice right. But now they have a choice now right.
Speaker 3:So how can we create opportunities for them to to uh, to be able to think and develop that skill set, because they don't have the skill, because they don't have the opportunities? It's kind of like, you know, sometimes I'll be thinking about like I'll be mad at my son, not mad at him, but I'll be like feeling some type of way about like my son because he don't have, like you know, as much of a go-hard attitude as I had when I was his age, when I was younger. But then I realized, like, bro, like, but you spoiled him. You did that.
Speaker 2:He spoiled himself.
Speaker 3:Me and his mom spoiled him.
Speaker 3:That's not his fault, right so, but I'm like, so how do I, right you know, create opportunities for him to develop that tenacity and that perseverance and that, like you know, when my back is up against the wall, I got to make it happen, or it ain't going to happen, that type of attitude? But he's never been in that situation because I've never allowed him to be in that situation. His mom has never allowed him to be in that situation, and we did that intentionally. So it's like that's a constant challenge too Like how do you balance that?
Speaker 3:Because we want the outcome but we don't want them to have to go through the hardship that brought us to that outcome and helped us to develop that skill set. So it's like we all, all of us like you know what I mean Like I'm saying, like I'm giving out all this advice, but this is something I'm dealing with, so I'm like I'm in the boat with everybody, like we all in this boat together.
Speaker 1:We're all trying to figure it out. Yeah, that is so true, because I find myself often like you know, trying to navigate and learn, like how to not give too much but not get enough too.
Speaker 1:It's like a line, you know, and I see, like I've been parenting for 25 years and I see some areas where I've given too much and I see some areas where I haven't given enough. Like I evaluate my parents and so with the younger, the 16 year olds, I'm trying to do things a little bit different, like staying on business for some stuff too right. But to your point, when I was thinking about this the other day, uh, my daughter had to sign something right and she's printing I was so mad, like why are you printing and assigned? But they never was taught cursive writing. Like that was taken away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the crazy thing is I fought myself for this because I knew that they weren't getting taught that in school and I didn't teach them at home how to curse them.
Speaker 1:Like I felt like that was a disservice I should have. Once I recognized the school was no longer teaching cursive writing to students, to my children, I should have known like I should have something in me, should have been like you know what teach them how to cursive write, because they do need this in the future. And now that they're 16 and like, well, my 18 year old, the one that's in the marines, like um, when she turned 16, when I noticed it with her, I started teaching her how to curse and write at 16 years old and I you would think a light bulb would have came on for me to teach the 14 year olds at that time, since I'm like the 16 year old my one kid at the time. Oh. But now to see the 16 year old, they are just printing and and I really kind of got upset like why you're not cursed. But if you wasn't taught something, how do you do something if you wasn't never?
Speaker 1:you wasn't taught and just that, just that digital thing like because you need to learn how to write cursive, like you need to be able to sign something. Yeah, everything is just not going to be print. So I think even in that instance, like the things that were taken away and parents knew that they were taken away but we didn't we wasn't maybe alert, as the young people say, woke enough to realize what was going on, and the things that we need to kind of step in, like when you said the opportunity to replace even the analog clocks, like when you think about it like that's something.
Speaker 2:I don't even have any in my house. When you said that I was like pause, I don't have none, you're not going to play today. I'm like I got to go buy one Just because I remember being a kid and my great aunt was sick and she was. We went to visit her in the hospital and she was like what time is it? Right? And I kept like, mind you, I'm the one sitting on the bed with her, we talking, I know where. She's just like what time is it? I'm like what time is it? What time is it? And I'm like I don't know what time is it. She's like it's a clock right there. I'm like, well, if you ask me, you should be able to see it. She said Timmy. She called my dad. Timmy, this baby don't know how to tell time. She don't know how to tell me. Tell you. She lay into my dad. She said that is your fault, it's not the school, it's not nobody else.
Speaker 1:You should be making sure of that I think things happen so fast and it slipped past us so fast that we just I don't know.
Speaker 2:And he said you don't know how to tell that kind and mind you, we're at the, the va, so they got, uh, the military time, so it's even extra numbers on there so I'm really panicking right and now. And now I'm going to start crying because I feel like I got my dad in trouble. He's like you don't know. I'm like, no, he's like I didn't even know, you didn't know. So sometimes we don't even know the choices and things that our kids don't even have.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's why that parental environment is so important, because it's having a conversation with them. And it's crazy that you said that. Because I'm a nurse, I taught my kids military time, right, I got a chapter in my book about military time.
Speaker 3:It's just just converting from from standard time to military time, yeah, but I want to add on to something you were saying, like you know, about how you took it upon yourself to realize that your children need to learn cursive, like that's something that, as parents especially with and see, here's the thing. You know how people say there's a silver lining to a cloud, like with this new um, I guess republican regime that was just elected and it's coming in, it's gonna force us to be more self-reliant. It's gonna force us to be more independent in terms of our moving. We tend to be more comfortable under Democratic leadership because the Democratic Party kind of makes us feel all good inside.
Speaker 3:Don't worry about it. Y'all chill out. We got this, we're going to take care of it. But the Republicans straight tell you nah, y'all ain't getting nothing. We're taking all these programs, we're taking this, we're taking that If you, if you starve, we don't care, you on your own. So against the wall so we got to figure it out because we we got to survive right. So we we go into survival mode now. But parents, we have to reorient ourselves to become the primary educators yes the school.
Speaker 3:If you, if you send your child to a public or charter school, even a private school, the school has to be secondary. That at least has to be the goal. Now, how what that looks like may vary from household to household, from community to community, but that has to be at least the goal for you as a parent, mother, father, uncle, aunt, you know, grandparent, godparent, you want to be the primary educator of that child right now.
Speaker 3:But see this, this, and this is the hard part once you decide that now it's like, oh well, if I'm the primary educator, that means I gotta know some stuff right I can't, just, I can't just make sure they get up early, they get get breakfast, maybe they, you know, got a clean uniform, clean iron uniform, whatever, and they get to school on time. I, I got to do more than that, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're going to have to do more than that. And again, like and I don't want to see like with this part of the conversation, I don't want to like blame black parents too much because that's what we've all been conditioned to do. We've been conditioned to just, you know, outsource, give the responsibility to the schools, right, and because and the government wants us to do that, the schools want us to do that, they want us to do that right. So you know, the parental involvement conversation is a is a precarious conversation because on one hand, it's like, yes, there should be, there should be parental involvement, right, but it's complicated because if there was the level of parental involvement that a lot of the schools and a lot of the administrators and a lot of the teachers claim that they want, a lot of these administrators and teachers would be upset because then they'd have to really work a lot harder. Because if you got all these hundreds and thousands of black parents on your back like, listen, why you ain't update your grade book? I want to know what my child's grades is, right, she said, like you ain't updated, like the last grade that's in there was from like two months ago. What's going on, right? So now you got to actually be conscientious as a teacher and as an administrator. Now, because you said you wanted parental involvement, so this is what it looks like now. So now it's like, oh, you're talking to my child a certain way, you're disrespecting my child. So now I'm at the school, now we got to. You don't want that, you. So it's like it's like okay, it's cool, it's like, oh, well, you know, because a lot of times what people that work in schools will do administrators and a lot of teachers will complain oh look, what's report card conferences? Don't nobody show up. It was back to school night, don't nobody show up. Right, they'll say that. But in reality, a lot of those people, they don't want people to show up. They just want them to show up when they want them to show up, right, but you don't want to, you don't want them to show up. But they're gonna hold you accountable. If they're gonna hold you accountable as a professional right, and I understand, like you know, that a lot of responsibilities the teachers have, I know, I, I'm a teacher, I get it right.
Speaker 3:But if we, if we put children first, in the needs of the children first, then you know, a lot of us have to be honest about the fact that we're not always doing the most that we can. Even in my own career I didn't always do the most that I could at all times. So that's you know. We all have to be self-reflective as educators. But you know, parental involvement is key. But for the parents we have to first decide that we're going to be the primary educators and then we can figure out what it looks like as time progresses right on a daily basis. But we first got to make that decision Because for so long we've accepted that the school is going to be the primary educator.
Speaker 3:And that ties into what I said earlier about math anxiety and, like you know, math phobias and fears of math. Because a lot of parents you know they were children that weren't properly educated in math, so they became adults that still had that experience weren't properly educated in math. So then it's like time for you know they don't really do as much to develop math skills in the household. So the kids just get sent to school not knowing much math. They might know how to count, but they don't, you know.
Speaker 3:I mean, why not they already? You can teach your children the multiplication facts in the house. Yeah, you can teach them how to multiply, divide. You don't gotta wait for the teachers, and a lot of these teachers are not more qualified than you are. They have a college degree, but that doesn't mean they're more qualified than you are right to teach your children and they're your children. That's another thing. Like you have the rapport with your children, you love your children. Your children trust you Right. The home environment oftentimes is more safe. It's more conducive to learning because it's relaxed, like we're chilling. This is my safe space. School is not a safe space a lot of times and school is war, it's war.
Speaker 3:It's war so you go to school, you got to be prepared. You got to be prepared, you got to be like, you got to already be on point and like learning is a very vulnerable activity. So I'm like I mean I think back to H Rat Brown, jamil Alamein, political activist from the 1960s. He said you know, in terms of talking about just America in general, any institution that we don't control can be used as a weapon against us. We don't control the schools. We don't control the public schools, the charter schools, the private schools. We don't control them, so they're used as a weapon against us. So the school is often not a safe space, right, and learning is a very vulnerable activity, right.
Speaker 3:In order for me to learn from you, I got to trust you, I got to be able to let my guard down. If I'm not, I'm probably not going to learn from you. Right Now, I could practice. If I need to sit in your room and there's something I already know how to do and I can practice some problems. That's cool, but that's not really.
Speaker 3:Maybe middle has middle class values and you don't like poor black kids and I'm poor and I'm from the hood and you don't. You don't respect me and my humanity. I'm not going to feel comfortable trying to learn from you, right? So that's why what has to happen? You've got to learn it in the house, and then the school has to be a space for practice. So the school, so math class, has to be like recess, in the sense that the young, the young boys, will come to school and love recess because they get to show off their skills, what they learned on their block, in their neighborhood, at their rec, around their way, think about hopscotch and stuff like that that they don't do anymore so they get to practice what they already know.
Speaker 3:They don't learn that in school. Right, they're practicing. They're practicing what they learned on their community. So my goal, my ambitious goal, is for us as a community, as black people, to be able to teach our children, whether in the household or in the block, in the community, wherever, teach them all the algebra, the geometry, the trigonometry, the pre-calculus, the calculus. So when they go to school, it's like all right, yeah, ok, we'll go to school, but we're just going to school to practice. So the school is not even as relevant. Like it's there, it's an institution, but it's like nah, you know, we're here for practice, just like recess. Like the young boys go to school and show off. I'm like listen, I know how to play basketball. No-transcript, I'm a cook, y'all Right, I just want to show off?
Speaker 3:I want to show off, but I didn't learn how to play basketball in school.
Speaker 1:Right, I learned it on my way. You brought it to the school.
Speaker 3:So the math should be the same way. The math needs to be the same way, like that's got to be the goal for like, for all of us, like, math has to be taught at home. And we got to have resources like like the oldest math YouTube channel.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like, like my, my, the volume one of my how to use all this math book series, you know all those. There's the plug, there's the plug for those. But but yeah, I think I think this, this has, I think this has to happen, like it's not just in philly, not just in chester, it's all over the country, right? You hear the reports oh, 99 of the schools have zero students that score proficient on the master and did I test? Like every year, it's the same thing. It's not working right. Well, it's not working for us.
Speaker 3:That's another thing I want to talk about. The system is not broken. I want us to be very clear. If it was broken, it would have been fixed. The fact that this happens every year and on a consistent basis means that this is part of the plan. This is part of the plan Because you always, whenever there's a problem, we have to always look at who's benefiting from the problem, because for every problem that either one of us us three here have, somebody's benefiting from their problem. So we always got to look at who's benefiting, because because what happens is oftentimes there'll be a problem, that's popular right and the media right will only focus on the problem. They'll never focus on who's benefiting from the problem right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And then?
Speaker 3:sometimes it'll be somebody that's benefiting, some company, corporation, entity, whatever that's benefiting from the problem. They'll slide up next to the victim, the person that's suffering, and try to make it seem like we cool. Might be some corporation like you know what? We see, what's going on in your community. There's so much gun violence and all this and that we're going to donate $250,000 and start this after school program. We're going to write you a grant or whatever, whatever they do, right. In the meantime, on the other end, you benefited from the environment that leads to the facilitation, maintains the gun violence. You benefited to the tune of like maybe a billion dollars a year. So that 250K ain't nothing. That's a dropping up, that's a tax write off anyway, right, but but again, critical thinking. So I tell your son like, see stuff.
Speaker 3:Like that like to be able to sit back and just peep the scene like hmm okay.
Speaker 3:I see what's going on but, again sitting in class doing the math problems making sure, like okay, left side, he was the right side. If I do this, this is going to happen. You know all that. So when you're doing math it trains your brain to think critically. So you start to see stuff that everybody else don't see, Like you ever be, like just somewhere, like it could be you and like 50 other people, and it's like something crazy is going on.
Speaker 1:And you see it because your thinking is on that level, but everybody else is chilling Like it's normal, like y'all don't see what's going on right now.
Speaker 3:Or like somebody will say something disrespectful but you catch on to it and it's not because you're being hypersensitive, it's because you're intelligent enough to realize they're trying to play in our face.
Speaker 3:You catch on to it, but everybody else don't catch on to it. You're the only one that catch on to it. You know he trying to be smart, but she trying to be smart You're the only one that catch on to it. Because their critical thinking level is not up to up to par, so they don't get it. They don't even get it. So that's why you know, when I advocate for people to lock in and tap into math, it's like math trains you how to like think critically so you can understand what's going on.
Speaker 1:So you're gonna understand the world around you you know, as you were talking earlier in that part, because you said a lie, all this math, uh, you know what I thought about and it's something that we kind of kind of flexed on. But it's not really a flex like growing up, like you ever, or even when you see shows with like grandmoms and things like that on there and they never really measured the food right, they always was like oh, you just put a little bit here, a little bit there, and then when you question them, this baby just do this, yeah, do that, and be like well, my grandma ain't never had to measure nothing, so I ain't gotta measure nothing. Like that is really a transgenerational thing, like we're literally passed down to our children. It's like listen, it just need to look, look enough, or whatever. Even when you go to like macaroni cheese, when you ask an older person what are the degrees to make a cake, a macaroni?
Speaker 2:they'll tell you, but they won't tell you the portion that they take.
Speaker 1:They don't even measure it. And I think that that was passed down for so long and we kind of use it as a flex now. My grandma ain't never had to use no measuring this or measuring that. They knew it. But then that went into the next generation and made it say we don't even need math like that because all we got to do is look at some stuff.
Speaker 3:I think. But see, I think, see my Nana rest in peace. To my Nana. She just passed away, like last month, right, she was like that too, like we're cooking and everything. I remember like my sister telling this story, like my sister was trying to make a sweet potato pie for the first time, one of my little sisters, and she called. She was like, she called Nana and was like Nana, how much do I put in? Like you know what I'm saying. Like I don't know enough. Put enough in there. Like you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:So, like, but that is a quantity, though I think even when somebody like they, like what do you call it? Eyeball it. When they got eyeballed, they still like, they're still quantifying it right, even though the quantity might not be okay. Exactly this, you know, put the flour in the measuring cup or whatever. You know what I'm saying. Like they might not do it like that, but it's like the quantity, they just know the quantity. And then, when you get to the point where you did it so much, you can eyeball it right, but there's still. So I would actually say they're still using math because they're still quantifying it. It's just not the type of quantity, because you know how people say, like in the black community. We got our own types of measurements.
Speaker 2:Right, Like you said a heap.
Speaker 3:You said a heap Like how much is a heap? How many ounces is a heap? Or you say like yo, I'm going to be there in a minute.
Speaker 2:How long is?
Speaker 3:that? How long is that? Yeah around the corner? How far?
Speaker 1:is around the corner.
Speaker 3:You got to know, you got to just know. And around and around the corner in somebody's neighborhood might be a different amount of this amount of number of feet or miles in somebody else's neighborhood or depending on who the person is or the time of day or what's going on. It's too complicated, so it is All of this is mathematical Right. All of it is mathematical.
Speaker 1:I get that part. I definitely get that part. But it's also hard to pass it down when you don't have the true measurements.
Speaker 2:When you have kids saying I don't know maybe it's just me.
Speaker 1:I'm using the measuring thing for everything. When I was teaching my kids, I used that as math, teaching them cooking. They all cook with me, so we all had every measurement out. So you know exactly what this means, what that means. But I think, when I was thinking back, when I asked somebody, even when they write stuff written down, the uh, the instructions and ingredients for something, it's not really, I guess, american measurement. As we see, it's probably just black measurement. But you're saying that even that can be utilized, as I did identify a quantity by by looking.
Speaker 3:Okay that's definitely a quantity, it's an amount, because you know like somebody, because it's a like, because somebody, because it's an identifiable amount of something Right, even if it's not like a recognized, like a cup or a milliliter or something like that.
Speaker 3:It could be, you know and that's another thing too, like you know, because we can and we're allowed to have our own forms of measurement. We can do that, you know, Because, because we can and we're allowed to have our own forms of measurement, we can do that, you know, because, I mean, at the end of the day, we were the first humans on Earth anyway, you know. So, even though because a lot of our formal education is based on systems that are used by, you know, europeans, you know, developed by Europeans, and it's good to know that, just like the English language, it's good to know the English language, it's good to have a strong command in the English language. But if you want to get technical, from a linguistic standpoint, english is a trash can language.
Speaker 3:It's garbage, right? It's a hodgepodge of a whole bunch of different languages all put together. The rules don't really make no sense. Because why does this word, why do you spell this word this way and pronounce it that way, but you spell the same another word, almost the same way, with one different letter, but you pronounce it a whole different way. That's garbage. It's garbage, but, but it's a but.
Speaker 2:It's an important tool that we should master right, we.
Speaker 3:Should master it, because that's an important tool right but it's, but it's not even our language like a lot, and actually you know, um, a lot of people use our ability to the ability of black people, to utilize standard English as a marker for intelligence, and we shouldn't do that, because any language could be a marker for intelligence. Slang in the hood is a marker for intelligence because there's a science to that.
Speaker 2:You have to know what's my song Like, just as somebody like think about all the variations of you good, like just as somebody's like.
Speaker 3:think about all the variations of you good.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:The intonation, the inflection of the voice. That's that's. That's cognitive. You have that cognitive ability to know what some. And that's a safety issue, because if you're somewhere where you don't belong or you're somewhere where you don't usually be at and somebody say you good, you got to know you you gotta catch on to like their tone. Yeah, like, are they asking about my well-being or they are they actually indicating that they about to do something to me and try to rob me or something right?
Speaker 3:intelligence is involved in that right. That's an intelligent thing. So you know. Like so, so even that, so like um. So I don't want our people to, you know, get mad at people or try to, you know, condescend to people if they don't use the right form of the word there. You know stuff like that and you know because, at the end of the day, like english is a, english is a trash can language.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's a form of resistance, like one of those one things kwame tore, one of my intellectual revolutionary heroes, said back in 1968. He said you know, um, not speaking standard English is actually a form of resistance, because if you want to learn English, you can learn English, it's not that hard. But when you think about the history, like, okay, I take you from your land, I take your people right, transport you to another place, I do my best to strip you of your culture, your religion, your spiritual systems, your family traditions. I do my best to strip you of your culture, your religion, your spiritual systems, your family traditions.
Speaker 3:I try to strip you of everything. And I take your language and I tell you you got to speak this language. I'm like that ain't my language. All right, maybe I need to use this language, but I'm not going to use it the way you want me to use it. So it's a form of resistance, like you said. When he said that it blew my mind, I was like damn, like yeah, it's a form of resistance.
Speaker 3:I think a lot of our people don't know that, though, and then we kind of bought into this whole thing of like well, if you talk like that, you just unintelligent. I'm like I don't know about that, and I also don't know that everybody understands that it's a form of resistance. Right, I right, I think. But but somewhere back in the day we understood it was a form of resistance. It's like a lot of things get passed on intergenerationally and we just do them. We don't know the root reason behind it. But but yeah, like, even like speaking slang and um, you know, uh, with different types of vernacular, you know, it's a form of resistance. It's just letting, letting this, letting an oppressor know like okay, you want, you're trying to force me to use this language, but I might use it, but I'm not going to use it like exactly the way you want me to use it, and that's why there's so many variations, you know, to the way we speak English.
Speaker 1:You know, all across the world, really, you know that's true. Like you get somebody come over and they're like this, ain't even English, you know they come to America and be like what United States this ain't the. English. What are they teaching y'all?
Speaker 3:And it's a function of power. That's another thing too. So think about it. So, those that are in power, they have decided, and decided a long time ago, that this is going to be the language that is spoken. This is going to be the standard language. But if people from the block around the way in Chester we're in power, then they would be able to say this is the standard in English.
Speaker 2:There's no fixed standard.
Speaker 3:Standardization is a function of power. Whoever's in power, they determine what the standard is Like, what's right and what's wrong, what's seen as acceptable, what's unacceptable. But a lot of times when we get educated we think oh, standard English, it's all about standard English and again, it's a tool. But it's just that it's a tool.
Speaker 1:It's a tool, just like any language.
Speaker 3:Like math, math is a language, math is a tool. Math is a language we definitely should learn, but math is not a trash language, though. It, but math is not a trash language, though I was going to say math is trash.
Speaker 1:Y'all hear that Math is not trash.
Speaker 3:No, no, Math is not a trash language. Math is very useful, very beneficial. Math can help us to solve problems. Math can help us to figure things out and forecast and plan for the future the short-term future, the long-term future, the intermediate future. Math can do all those things for us.
Speaker 1:I think that's very good. You just brought like you really brought a good point of how I like how you just brought critical thinking pretty much in every area of life and how math is necessary in every area of life. It helps you critical think and problem solve for everything. I think that so long like we haven't looked at math that way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, even me, growing up I never looked at it like that, not until I really got into it, like really like started my company and started like doing more tutoring and doing more reading and like the context of like studying scholars like Amos Wilson and you know other people Dr Bobby Wright, you know people like ancestors like that and just their critical analysis of the world and whatnot. And then thinking about mathematics and then seeing like you know how math, how a lot of the principles of math and the concepts of math very much align themselves with a lot of political science concepts and psychological concepts, and I just be sitting there like wow, like makes sense now. So I'm looking at it differently. But man, the more I study math, I'm like yeah, they don't want us to learn this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got to change our perspective towards math.
Speaker 1:This could be a problem, I think this is a conversation that has to continue.
Speaker 3:I'll come back. There's some stuff going on here. Y'all got comfortable chairs too.
Speaker 1:CMP Radio, the voice of Chester. All right, all right. So, akil, if you could just leave us with some quick takeaways before we finish. I mean this has been a very engaging conversation. I mean we're talking about stuff that people don't talk about, and that's what Parent of the Purpose is. Here we talk about uncomfortable like uncomfortable conversations, because that's, math is not a conversation that we see in a community. We don't really talk about that. So I'm glad that you're here to really open up our eyes to understand how math is not just math, right?
Speaker 1:it is it's not trash. Math is not trash because we all about this math, but how important it is in everyday living and how important it is. I think one of the things that I think for me, the takeaway is, and which I've been saying over and over again, is that parents are the first educators and how important parents educate our children so that when they go to school it's practice. I like that. That is that new knowledge. So can you just leave the audience with a little couple takeaways before we leave out of here?
Speaker 3:yeah, definitely so. Do the do everything in your power to. If you are a parent that kind of, from time to time, makes comments such as, you know, that speaks to the irrelevance of math, or, um, the the stupidity of math, or like, even when your children come home with the homework and it's it's different from the way in which you learned it years ago, you know, not have that type of commentary around around math, because what it does is it creates, it furthers a narrative and it creates an idea in the mind of your child that math is, in fact, irrelevant when it's when it is very relevant, um, and that what that does is that that, since math is a gatekeeper for stem careers and stem professions, it in a way makes it much more difficult, if not impossible, for them to gain access to stem careers. So that's what's actually happening, because math is the major gatekeeper, like one of the things, um, the late bob moses said in his book radical equations. He said that mathematics education is the major gatekeeper. Like one of the things the late Bob Moses said in his book Radical Equations, he said that mathematics education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, and it's kind of something that we don't really talk about, right, it's kind of hidden in plain view. Right, roads lead to the math.
Speaker 3:Um, definitely, make a conscious decision to, as as you said, like, become, become, decide to have the desire to become the primary educator of your children. That's easier said than done. I understand that. I'm not going to try to romanticize it. It's going to require work, right, but think about the alternative. If you don't do that, right, think how hard that's going to be, because that's going to have consequences as well. Right, we cannot, we cannot depend on the schools. We can't, right, we just we just can't. We see that. We see it all around, we've seen it for years. Right, we have to be honest with ourselves. So we've got to figure out ways to take more ownership over our children's education. Right, we have to be able to do that and it's going to require some work. We're going to have to learn some stuff. You might have to learn some. Learn some, some algebra and and and another thing too. This is what this is one thing I really enjoy saying.
Speaker 3:A lot of parents are triggered by math homework that their children bring home. Cause, if your child is in sixth grade and they bring home some math homework. And then you go back to that place when you was in sixth grade and you was sitting in class and you was about to cry because you didn't know how to do something or your teacher might have been mean to you. So you're still in. It's like object permanence, like you. Go back to that moment, right, you like stuck in the past. Right, think about this. You're 30 now. You're 40 now you. You're 40, now You're 50. You're smarter now. You know more now. You have more life experience. Back then your frontal lobe wasn't even fully developed. You didn't even know how to fully think as well as you do now.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Right. So the math that you didn't understand when you was in sixth grade, I would say that there's a strong possibility that you would be able to catch on to it now. You will be able to. I'm confident in you. So again, a lot of times, because we go back to that place when we was in sixth grade, when we was in eighth grade, right, and we just say, oh no, because I remember back then. You're not back then, no more. You've lived life. You've been married, been divorced, had boyfriends, had girlfriends, you got some kids. You've been grocery shopping, you've been living on your own, traveled around the country, took trips to the Bahamas. You did all this stuff. All of those life experiences will help you to understand mathematics homework.
Speaker 1:That's good, all of that.
Speaker 3:And your frontal lobe. Like I said, think about the neuroscience. Your frontal lobe wasn't even fully developed back then. Now it is.
Speaker 1:You science, your frontal lobe wasn't even fully developed back then.
Speaker 3:Now it is. You got more, okay. Oh, let me say this too everybody that watches this, make sure you subscribe to the all this math youtube channel, the all this math youtube channel, um, for math support. Uh, we got over 800 videos ranging from arithmetic up to calculus. Anything you need it's on there. If it's not on there, it's going to be on there, right? It'll be on there, you know, at some point, right? I want that to be the place you go to as a parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, to get to understand the math that you want to help your children with, and I want your children to go there Also. My book how to Use All this Math Volume 1, is available on Amazon $34.95. Volume 2 is behind schedule. It was supposed to come out in September, but life happens, but it will be out.
Speaker 1:There's some math going on. Huh, it's the second book in the series.
Speaker 3:It's the second book in the series. It's coming soon. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:And we'll post this on our Facebook page Parenting with a Purpose Facebook page all about all this math and all the resources that Akil has to offer to parents and students to make this thing better, make this thing livable, make this thing okay. So we'll definitely share those resources with you guys if you follow us on our Parenting with a Purpose Facebook page. And yo, this was just like an amazing conversation.
Speaker 2:Pam, you got anything to say? Pam, Pam, Pam.
Speaker 1:All Pam had done was smiling all night y'all. She's just like yo. This is a genius.
Speaker 2:Because I have to go back home and do a lot of things. You got to get an analog clock in the house.
Speaker 1:That's number one Anything the analog clock in the house.
Speaker 2:That's number one. Oh, that'll help, but anything, anything else, pam, you got to say or um, no, uh. Again, thank you, akil, for taking the time, uh, to come on the show to help educate us um and math, you know. So we can get that fear, knowing that we are no longer that kid, we are now the parent, we know more, we have more resources and let's just tap into them. Um, I also wanted to say don't forget to tap into parenting with a purpose, because these are the resources and information that we are bringing to our people, for our people, for our children that are going somewhere, um, and also check us out on all platforms for our podcast. We'll be back 7 pm next Thursday. Alright, girl, it's Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3:Oh, we are on break so we'll be back.
Speaker 2:December the 5th, december the 5th, we'll be back live Yep for another engaging conversation.
Speaker 1:Again, thank you guys for pointing to Parents with a Purpose. We really hope that you continue to follow us and collect all these resources. Collect them and use them so that we can better our people.
Speaker 3:Yes, definitely. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2:Yes, good, thank you.