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.