It's a math lab. If you call it Math Lab people will mostly know what you're talking about. <div><br></div><div>I'm commmiiinnnggg. Waking up is hard to do. <br><br>On Wednesday, October 2, 2013, Thomas Fitzpatrick wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div>Thanks for the feedback. That
literature is welcome. Shower away.<br>
<br>
I'm not sure about other boxing gyms, but that was my experience
at King's Gym in East Oakland. To its credit, at least a fifth of
its members are women and I've never seen them harassed - ogling
aside - without them being put in their place. I've only seen the
beginnings of bullying and that was squelched quickly - it was an
up and coming amateur teasing an overweight guy who came to hang
out more than work out or possibly couldn't keep up. I liked how
the owner handled that and that it was fine to come there and not
work out at all - better to have them come and get the social
aspects and possibly join in than to leave. You can also change
styles without having to change gyms and make a whole new set of
friends.<br>
<br>
I've had the same bad experiences minus the sexism in weight
lifting gyms. And I've never made any friends in those
environments. People tend to be really aggressive/abrasive with
each other or not engage at all. At King's that is all channeled
into the ring - a place where restraint is required the most.
Being beaten up by someone way better than you is not a learning
experience - it just kills your confidence. That is why trainers
only match you with people around your level - or they have the
more experienced solely defend or only throw the same punches,
etc...<br>
<br>
The focus is advancing your skills, but the social component is
what makes it. That was what I wanted to get across. I've also had
a lot of bad experiences with tutors and experts in general.
Experts and jocks have a lot in common. Sometimes they keep
talking and you know you have to engage or you won't retain any of
that knowledge. That is the problem with the broadcast lecture
method - it is efficient, but not effective.<br>
<br>
Anyway, I wasn't planning on putting Boxing in the Name - MATH
BOXING has some chess boxing connotations - but maybe MATH DOJO.
Dojo is a little more innocuous and there are all the {LANGUAGE_X}
dojo events that have a great format: pick a problem, then break
into groups that mix experts and novices and try to solve it.
Names are important for making people lot at the description.
Maybe they don't know they want to learn more math.<br>
<br>
How to Solve It, Talent is Overrated, Problem Solving or anagrams
that fit would all work - Mathematical Games becomes Metamagical
Themas.<br>
<br>
I liked Romancing and Method, an anagram for Morning Math and Code
because it sounds like a dating advice class and I figured that
would at last get people interested enough to read the description
when they look at the event calendar.<br>
<br>
On 10/01/2013 11:14 PM, Marina Kukso wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div>
<div>hey tom,<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>***wall of text incoming***<br>
</div>
<div><br>
this is so cool and i really appreciate how
well-thought-out and well-written your proposal is for
creating a safe math learning environment. have you heard
of the <a href="http://www.berkeleycompassproject.org/" target="_blank">berkeley
compass project</a>? they work with physics freshmen at
berkeley to help create a learning support network in a
program that's famous for serving a weeding out function.
also, if you are interested in readings about inclusive
math pedagogy, just let me know and i'll be happy to
shower you with pdf's.<br>
<br>
while i love some of the principles that you've outlined
as being productive social norms for learning based on the
boxing gym metaphor, my suggestion would be to consider
not using the boxing gym metaphor in the name of the
group. my own perspective (and the perspective of many
women i know), is that boxing gyms are pretty heavily
coded "MALE - do not enter unless you want to be looked up
and down, humiliated, and judged.". they're up there with
free weight rooms, mechanic shops, lumberyards, and
hardware stores. (to give a free weight example, when i
was in college, it was so bad that a friend and i would
only go to the free weight room at the gym together
because the judging, humiliating looks and patronizing
smiles were just too much. we actually couldn't even focus
on figuring out how to use the machines because we were so
preoccupied with the eyes on our backs. women's bodies are
subject to so much scrutiny by strangers all the fucking
time (i was harassed twice in the first 15 seconds of a
run yesterday!) that it was just not worth it to have to
experience this degradation in order to use this part of
the gym, so after a couple times we never went back).<br>
<br>
</div>
i had no idea though that these were the social norms in
boxing gyms - everything that you shared is really
instructive and definitely broke down a lot of my
misconceptions. it's entirely possible that boxing gyms
aren't at all like my image of them, that many of us women
have unfair misconceptions about what they're like, but if
you use this metaphor, you'll have to battle against that
expectation. additionally, it's also possible that your
experience of the boxing gym space is shaped by your
experience as a man and that a woman might experience a
boxing space differently. i honestly have no idea whether
that's the case and would love to learn more about your
experience with boxing gyms.<br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<div>i wonder if others have similar thoughts about the boxing
gym metaphor and also ideas for other metaphors that might let
people know that "this will be a study group that supports you
in your learning" (although you could just call it "math study
group" and list the "ground rules." or just go full hippie:
"inclusive math study group.")<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
- marina<br>
</div>
<div><br>
<br>
<div>On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 9:57 PM, Thomas
Fitzpatrick <span dir="ltr"><<a>fitzsnaggle@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> If there are no
objections, I'm reenstating Morning Math. I think a new
name is in order and would like to field a couple - Math
Gym, Visceral Mathematics, Romancing Methods...<br>
<br>
Sessions will start at 7:30 AM. I will be staying and
holding up the torch until 11:30. Participants are free to
come and go as the please between those times on Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, Thursday (no pressure to show up on all days,
but I will be there) with the possibility of more days.<br>
<br>
All levels are welcome - there will always be</div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></div>
</blockquote></div>