Welcome!

Join me in discussing mathematics and education

Dialogue is everything

In my career I’ve been involved in plenty of arguments about mathematics education. I have my own knowledge, experience, and opinions—but the best moments have come when I’ve listened hard to someone who sees things differently and discovered that we were both partly right, or that I was wrong, or that we disagreed about something more fundamental than either of us realized.

I want to recreate those conversations here.

A bit of background

I'm a mathematician who has spent the last thirty years working in K–12 education. I was a lead writer of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, I co-founded Illustrative Mathematics, and I ran a blog called Mathematical Musings for over a decade. The forums on that blog were some of the most rewarding professional conversations I've had. I've missed those conversations, so I'm bringing the name back.

What you can expect

I’ll post every Friday, with occasional midweek extras. All posts will be free, comments will be open, and I’ll respond as much as I can. I like thinking about specific examples—particular problems, particular classroom moments, particular questions about curriculum and teaching. Sometimes I’ll dig into controversies. Sometimes I’ll just share a piece of mathematics I find beautiful.

I'm working on a few posts about classroom moments, fluency, and the arguments that never seem to end. The first one drops this Friday.

Note: I am a co-founder and senior advisor at Illustrative Mathematics. This Substack is not affiliated with IM. It's my personal space and doesn't reflect the positions of the organization.

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