I teach both middle school "technology" (think shop class mixed with Computer Science) and I later teach the same students in geometry and calculus in high school. This means when I first work with students there are no grades, just an opportunity to be creative and learn how to use tools and programming to make things.
This creates an amazing foundation for our work in academics later.
I wonder if it could be a model for improving math education we could expand?
Best math teacher I ever had was when he prefaced each lesson with a historical background on what real world problem math was designed to solve.
These parables and stories still stick with me now.
The "narrative & solution" combo is a really effective technique.
Oddly enough, it's also why Republican propaganda is so pernicious.
They'll stick a lie or a false narrative in front of a concluding "Fascism is the Solution!" and it becomes "sticky" in people's minds.
There are several examples:
1. Trans rights.
The GOP promotes nonsense about sports & trans athletes, then advocates for "inspections" & foments fake moral panics.
The goal is the eradication of privacy as a civil right.
False narrative:
https://glaad.org/fact-sheet-for-reporters-sex-testing-in-sports/
Fascist conclusion:
No democracy can survive the loss of privacy as a civil right.
https://www.wired.com/story/republicans-differential-privacy-census-overhaul/
https://prismreports.org/2025/07/10/surveillance-state-in-u-s-is-far-worse-than-you-imagined/
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2. Women's rights
Republicans fund narratives about "male loneliness" on manosphere web sites & blogs.
They decry falling birthrates & fake stories about infanticide.
False narrative:
https://laist.com/brief/news/kpcc-archive/how-to-la/men-are-lonely-we-explore-some-reasons-why-and-what-can-be-done-about-it
https://internationalviewpoint.org/Loneliness-suicide-misogyny-capitalism
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahdobro/shocking-things-men-said-on-first-dates
https://19thnews.org/2024/09/trump-doubles-down-abortion-execution-babies-debate/
Fascist conclusion: male supremacy
Repeal the 19th amendment & impose a de facto poll tax on married women to vote.
https://thedispatch.com/article/women-vote-empathy-19th-amendment-repeal/
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3. Immigration, POC, & crime
Republicans promote a sick ideology that cleaves immigrants and POC to crime rates.
False narrative:
Immigrants are less likely to be involved in criminal conduct, not more. There's no such thing as voter fraud in POC communities.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-focuses-migrants-crime-here-is-what-research-shows-2024-04-11/
https://truthout.org/articles/data-disproves-right-wing-talking-points-about-migrant-crime/
Fascist conclusion:
Felony disenfranchisement & mass deportation programs
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/new-gop-anti-voting-bill-may-be-the-most-dangerous-attack-on-voting-rights-ever/
Donald Trump is blaming migrants in the U.S. illegally for fueling violent crime as part of his campaign to win back the White House, repeating rhetoric used during his previous run for the presidency. But studies show immigrants are not more likely to engage in criminality.
I liked the history of Pythagoras, Archimedes, Leibnitz, Newton, Einstein, and how Catholic & Islamic mathematicians saved copies of Greek maths etc.
https://www.popsci.com/science/lost-greek-manuscript-discovered-france/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Khwarizmi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes_Palimpsest
When Hawking's On the Shoulders of Giants came out, I bought the book immediately
It's amazing that Babylonian base 60 math for time is still in use today
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematics
David M. Burton's book is great!
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One of my favorite documentaries
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dxjls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Story_of_Maths
Euclidean geometry and Fermat's theorem -- the concept of how mathematical proofs are developed is an excellent story. (Well anyways, I find it cool. Can't promise every high school student would agree with me )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_proofs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_proof
The documentary on Andrew Wiles & Fermat's Last Theorem I've watched several times.
https://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/features/fermats-last-theorem-history-new-mathematics
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https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-core-of-fermats-last-theorem-just-got-superpowered-20250602/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/andrew-wiles-fermat/
Well deserved
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/17/470786922/professor-who-solved-fermat-s-last-theorem-wins-math-s-abel-prize
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiles%27s_proof_of_Fermat%27s_Last_Theorem
myrmepropagandist
Nicole Parsons
Maypop the Dragon
