Thanks for the feedback. That literature is welcome. Shower away.
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.
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...
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.
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.
How to Solve It, Talent is Overrated, Problem Solving or anagrams that fit would all work - Mathematical Games becomes Metamagical Themas.
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.
On 10/01/2013 11:14 PM, Marina Kukso wrote:
hey tom,
***wall of text incoming***
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.
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 berkeley compass project? 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.
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).
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.")
- marina
On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 9:57 PM, Thomas Fitzpatrick <fitzsnaggle@gmail.com> wrote:
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...
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.
All levels are welcome - there will always be