by NCTM President J. Michael Shaughnessy
NCTM Summing Up, March 2, 2012
We all probably have had a friend or acquaintance, or even a perfect stranger, raving about a book she has just read, or a movie he has recently seen, and then saying, “Oh, you must read this book!” or, “You must see that film!” But how many of us have had this kind of experience in a social occasion where the person exclaimed, “Oh, you must see this proof!” So it was indeed refreshing to meet someone who really likes mathematics, as I did several weeks ago, in what might seem like a very unlikely setting—the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday mornings when Congress is in session, Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) holds a breakfast gathering in his office for his constituents. Visitors to the breakfast consist primarily of people from Minnesota, but I received an invitation from a mathematics teacher who is spending the year working on the senator’s staff. A famous hearty porridge is served up at these breakfasts, and once guests have begun to circulate, Senator Franken drops in and greets everyone. I had been misinformed and thought that the Senator had been a mathematics major in college. When I asked him about this, he said that the rumor was false, but he agreed that his good grades in math had probably helped him get admitted to college.
After breakfast, the visitors were escorted to a terrace area in the hallway outside the office, where the senator spoke for a few minutes about events being debated in Congress and answered questions. Guests then lined up to have their pictures taken with the senator. I was at the end of the line, and as I shook his hand and introduced myself as the president of NCTM, he said, “Let me show you my geometric proof of the Pythagorean theorem!” Senator Franken then proceeded to grab scratch paper and a pen from one of his staffers and plopped down cross-legged on the hallway carpet. As I sat next to him, he began to sketch out his proof. He explained what he was doing, and why it worked, and I paraphrased each move he made so that it was clear to both of us how he was thinking and what he was doing.
The senator sketched a right triangle and then proceeded to construct contiguous copies of it in such a way as to create an area model from which the Pythagorean relationship emerged visually. There are hundreds of proofs of the Pythagorean theorem that have been devised over many centuries, but I would venture to say that few (if any) U.S. senators have ever produced one of them on the spot as joyfully as Senator Franken did.
Sitting on the floor of the Hart Building with a U.S. senator who took the time to do mathematics with me is one of the highlights of my time as president of NCTM. I knew that Senator Franken is a member of the HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions), and that he has raised a supporting voice for mathematics and science education during his time in the Senate. However, I didn’t know until my breakfast with him that not only does he talk the talk, but he can also walk the walk, of mathematics. It was exhilarating to sit there with him and realize that he likes mathematics and that he isn’t afraid to show it, or to do it, in public! If only there were more people in our society with Senator Franken’s enthusiasm about mathematics, we might be able to obliterate our nation’s shameful attitude toward the subject.
Generally, the only times we experience an exchange about a mathematical proof or a mathematical problem are when we attend mathematics conferences or have conversations with our fellow mathematics teachers. It is rare for a perfect stranger to want to share mathematics with us, especially after learning that we teach mathematics. The usual reaction that we receive is, “Oh, I could never do math.” I have written at length in a previous president’s message about the cultural disease in attitudes toward mathematics that we tolerate in our nation, where it is socially acceptable to claim to be incompetent in mathematics (“It’s Time to Stamp Out the Phrase ‘I’m Bad at Math,’” October 2010 President’s Message).
So, it’s with great expectations that we can look forward to the opening later this year of the first ever Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) in New York City. NCTM has formed a partnership with MoMath to create a national campaign to promote mathematics. The museum will have exhibits and experiences that show the public the beauty and power of mathematics that is all around us, through immersion in interactive and experiential mathematical environments. Attendees at the NCTM Annual Meeting and Exhibition in Philadelphia (April 25–28) will get a preview of the museum’s design and exhibits during a special session given by the directors of MoMath. Through our work with the museum, NCTM hopes to plant and nurture a national enthusiasm for mathematics. My encounter with Senator Franken reminded me that pure, guileless enthusiasm about mathematics, such as his, can be infectious, helping to elevate the social currency of mathematics in our country, so that mathematics becomes something that people want to do and share with others. The drive to share great math problems and insightful mathematical arguments should become just as acceptable in our culture as is our need to share reflections about books we’ve read or movies we’ve seen. Senator Franken helped me imagine a day when people might come up to one another and eagerly ask, “Done any good math problems recently?” Thank you, senator!