I debated giving some context for who I am, but you’ll get that if you read, and I’m pretty sure you’ve already decided whether you’ll do that or not, so I’ll simply drop the link.

https://mathiex.blogspot.ca/2017/08/you-cannot-include-everybody.html

Everyone, support others as best as you can. Don’t stop questioning. Peace out.

Dan, I appreciate your apology because I’ve been hurting too. In my own way, I too have been a part of the MTBoS outreach and it hurt to get smacked like that in pubic – even though I believe it was not your intention to hurt the people who continue to work so hard to create a meaningful and valuable community.

One of the things I have **not** heard in all these discussions – which I believe is central to the whole philosophy of the MTBoS – is any acknowledgment of the whole ‘stone soup’ philosophy at its core.

When we started TMC, we said, Enough. Enough with waiting for permission to participate. We stepped forward with our own individual and collective truths and said, We will speak.

We decided we would not sit compliantly and wait to be called on. We decided to use what we already have and know to empower ourselves to learn and create what we don’t have or know.

Everybody here has valuable perspectives and ideas and experiences from which others can benefit. So rather than sit around and wait for some Grand Wizard From On High to call and grant us **permission** to speak, we decided we would go ahead and speak to each other listen to what others have to say and honor each other’s truths and experiences and journeys.

In the intervening years, Twitter has gotten louder and more crowded, and so this philosophy has become more and more needed. It’s become impossible to read every single tweet that crosses a person’s timeline. But out of everything I **do** read, I usually find some nugget of gold that helps me get through the harder times or that makes the good times more joyful.

So here’s a constructive suggestion for those who’d like to get involved in the MTBoS:

Powerful advice from someone who knows.

– Elizabeth (@cheesemonkeysf)

I’m rereading this proposal and putting “difficult math” everywhere I see Empty Boss.

I hate this exercise because it makes me really disappointed in a bunch of educators I’ve long admired, but it’s the same exercise that provoked this tweet.

So many people glibly suggested that confused and alienated newcomers simply google “MTBoS,” as though the meaning of the acronym were the only problem, and as if telling people to “just Google it” would do anything to reduce their confusion or alienation. I find it hard to believe that if one of their students asked them “what PEMDAS meant,” they’d so glibly suggest they Google it, but who knows.

Thanks for the bonus question, also. I won’t pretend to have any great answers there but I’d love to listen to anybody who does.

Q: “Hey folks, lots of people have told me that they didn’t try ‘difficult math’ because they didn’t know what it was or weren’t sure they were welcome. Can we come up with a name that’s more descriptive and has less chance of being off-putting, to use in addition to ‘difficult math’? ”

A: “I’m not intimidated by ‘difficult math’ and neither are these other people.” (without a proposal for welcoming those who *are* intimidated)

A: “I’m not intimidated and neither are these other people. Therefore the intimidated people should stop being intimidated.”

A: “When a choice has to be made either to inconvenience established participants who already feel welcome and like they belong, or newcomers, I vote to inconvenience newcomers.”

A: “Your new proposal doesn’t include me.” (without an alternate proposal that addresses both their own needs and the intimidation factor)

Some ideas:
– What do we each do to welcome math students into math itself? Are we using the same techniques to welcome math teachers into online collaboration? Why or why not?

– When we expect our students to be resilient in thinking about things from unfamiliar perspectives or in uncomfortable ways, how do we support them? Do we expect the same from ourselves? Do students and teachers have equal responsibilities in this? Do new teachers and experienced teachers have equal responsibilities in this? Do people who are included and people who are excluded have equal responsibilities in this?

BONUS QUESTION
– what can this conversation help us understand about the inclusion of women, queer and trans people, people of colour, people with disabilities… as math students, as math teachers, as mathematicians?

Thanks for sharing your route into the #MTBoS, Loren. I admit yours is the kind of story I’m most worried about. It seems like with just a little less persistence from you, we would have lost your ideas and your presence for a long while.

Great questions, all the way around. I hope you’ll keep us posted as you encounter answers, even the early and partial kind.

I used to think MTBoS stood for Math Teachers of Boston.

This is fantastic, IMO.

Are we the first group of learners on Twitter to encounter these challenges? From whom could we learn?

I’m pretty confident other teaching disciplines haven’t found a way to cross this boundary that we’re missing. I’m also confident (though a little less) that we’re asking Twitter to serve us in ways that other communities don’t.