Breaking the Cycle of Math Phobia Starts With Adults: A Conversation with Kelly Jonelis, Part 2

As a language and humanities educator, I used to “comfort” students who were “not math people” like me.“It’s ok, not everyone is a ‘math person,’” I would say.This language and attitude, which stemmed from good intentions, ultimately did a disservice to my students and their relationships with math.I had developed a phobia of math because of the traditional way I was taught. The implicit biases and language I used to describe math passed that phobia on to my students.As I discuss so often on this platform, the adults must do their inner work to truly serve students, because our unexamined paradigms can lead our best intentions to do harm to the development of the young people in our care.If you have any meaningful relationship with young people as an educator, administrator, parent, mentor, coach, or anything in between, your language and attitudes must shift to break the cycles of alienation from math and language, the very systems which allow humans to deeply and critically understand the world around them.In part two of my conversation with Kelly Jonelis, we discuss math phobia, the power of the language we use, and practical tips for educators and parents to support young people in having a positive relationship with mathematics.I hope you enjoy this special two-part podcast episode. Thanks for listening!Resources Discussed:The Math Institute: https://www.themathinstitute.org/Train Montessori: https://www.trainmontessori.org/Phillips Exeter Math Resources: https://www.exeter.edu/mathproblems “The Art of Listening” by Nita Pettigrew: https://www.exeter.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Revolution-The-art-listening-Harkness.pdf Breaking the Paradigm of Traditional Education is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support this work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Join The Enlightened Educator Project!The Enlightened Educator Project is on a mission to to develop mindful, reflective, and resilient educators to make education more humanizing and sustainable for all.If this resonates with you, we are always looking for schools and individuals to join our cohort of educators who are building community and resilience together. Cohorts start in the Fall and Winter.Check out our website at www.EnlightenedEducatorProject.org and learn more about our school cohort model here!https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lE1Z3lQFkiZ9YZtPlvkSutdverMrBcz_/view?usp=sharing This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit breakingtheparadigm.org/subscribe

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