An Open Letter to the Leadership of NCTM

To the Leadership of NCTM:

This letter is from Seth Leavitt. I teach Mathematics for Minneapolis Public Schools. I have taught Elementary (all subjects) and Middle School Math. I am currently writing and teaching a blended, online Math course for middle school students. I am a longtime member of NCTM as well as a longtime user and participant on The Math Forum.

I am writing to encourage you, in your position of leadership at NCTM, to re-examine the decisions made regarding The Math Forum.

I read the Presidents' statement from Matt Larson and Robert Berry. I participated in the webinar conducted by President Larson - Positioning NCTM for the Second Century. I am also trying to stay informed by reading blog posts. This post by Tracy Zager, along with its comments, expresses much of the sentiment I want to talk about in this letter.

I belong to NCTM because I value having a national organization that represents math teaching and learning. I belong to MCTM (Minnesota Council of Teachers of Mathematics) for the same reason at the state level. This is an important function for these organizations. NCTM and MCTM have a level of clout and visibility that adds considerable weight to our (teachers, students, and families) voices. 

I also value the teaching resources provided by NCTM and MCTM. (I have contributed articles to NCTM publications.) I know that I am a better teacher for having these resources at my fingertips.

The Math Forum, though not as old as NCTM, is truly the Grandparent of the online Math community. (Great-Grandparent might be a more accurate description.) I found this letter to "Ask Dr. Math" from 1996. I'm sure it wasn't my first use of the site. But calling the Math Forum a "site" is really a misnomer.

I have been fortunate to work on projects sponsored by the Math Forum, both remotely and in Philadelphia. (I'm probably bragging a bit here but my first visit to the Math Forum was when they were housed in a small house on the Swarthmore campus.) My personal interactions with the Math Forum staff have made a deep impression on me and on my teaching. My most profound lesson was the lesson I learned about learners. The Math Forum staff  have an unequivocal, unshakeable faith in the learner's ability to learn. While I hear this sentiment voiced quite often, I deeply, deeply felt it when learning with the Math Forum staff. I now feel it deeply myself. Because I feel this way, my students and their families feel this way - they have told me so. This alone has contributed to the joy I feel as a teacher. While the sentiment had already resonated with the teacher that I was, I credit the Math Forum staff for helping me see it so plainly.

The Math Forum contributes to mathematics teaching and learning in many more ways than this but I wanted to share my personal story with you. I hope to show you how much the Math Forum meant to one teacher and his students. Multiply this influence by the thousands (teachers) and then multiply that by the average number of students raised to the average number of years teaching and you get a very big number. 

Please do your best to help NCTM and the Math Forum bridge their divide. I know there are problems. But many problems can be solved by creative thinkers who put in the time and effort necessary to solve them. Please try. Feel free to call upon me or anyone else in the online math community for help.

Sincerely,
Seth Leavitt

September 27 - My Thoughts

I just looked up my membership on NCTM. The "Order History" page tracked my membership back to 2000. I think I've been a member longer than that but even at that, it's been a relatively long time.

I searched for my name on The Math Forum. I found a letter I wrote to Ask Dr. Math from 1996.

Both of these organizations have helped me become the teacher that I am.

NCTM opened up doors that I never would have even noticed if I'd been confined to my classroom's four walls. I credit my involvement with The Rational Number Project to inspiration I received and people I met from NCTM.

The Math Forum invited me in - first by generously answering my math questions online and then by including me in many projects. I spent two summers at the Park City Math Institute, which I learned about from the Math Forum.

Then, in summer, 2016 (I think it was 2016), I learned that NCTM and The Math Forum were joining forces. What great news! What a great partnership. Our national organization bringing our online organization into their fold. It just couldn't be any better.

But then, in early September of this year, I heard a rumor that there was trouble in the air. NCTM wanted The Math Forum staff to move to Reston, Virginia. The Forum staff did not want to move so NCTM was going to sever ties. How could that be? It seemed silly. 

I've since learned that the issue is not that simple (as I should have realized). I read this statement from the President and President-elect of NCTM. The problems are certainly not just logistics. But the issues raised in the blog post didn't convince me that this was an un-solvable problem.

Let's help solve it. Write to your NCTM Board members. Give them some ideas. Tell them how much the Math Forum means to you and your students. This problem can be solved.

To make contacting the NCTM Board easier, I compiled a list of the board members, including their email addresses. I searched the public web to find this information so it's available to anyone. But I don't want to just post the list publicly. If you want access to my list, click this link and request permission. You can certainly find the addresses on your own but this makes it a bit easier.

If we all pitch in with our voices and our ideas, we can fix this.

PS Eileen H Goodspeed shared a letter she wrote to Matt Larson, the President of NCTM. She included his response.  I saw the reference to her letter on this blog post by Tracy Zager. (Look towards the bottom of the comments.) She included this link to her letter and Matt Larson's response. It is a powerful testimony to the wide-reach of the Math Forum.