November 25, 2025 • 56 mins
We’re diving deep into the world of math and financial literacy today, and trust me, you don’t want to miss it! We’re chatting with Akil Parker, who passionately explains how mastering math is the key to unlocking a treasure trove of opportunities, especially in STEM fields. He emphasizes that strong math skills aren’t just about solving equations; they’re the backbone of financial literacy, too! If we want our kids to be savvy with their money and not fall prey to financial traps, we’ve got to start teaching them math early and often. So grab a comfy seat, and get ready for some enlightening discussions on how we can empower the next generation to be financially confident and math-savvy!
Takeaways:
- Understanding mathematical literacy is crucial for achieving financial literacy, so let's bridge that gap!
- Parents should take charge of their children's math education, as schools may not provide it adequately.
- Math is the gatekeeper to many career opportunities; embracing it opens doors to finance and STEM fields.
- Engaging children in discussions about money and math at home creates valuable teachable moments.
Links referenced in this episode:
For more episodes and financial insights, visit https://aboutthatwallet.com
Disclaimer:
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Please consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any decisions regarding reverse mortgages or other financial products.
Episode 319
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Because once you're a strongmath student, you know, it's similar
to the conversations around stem.
Like, there are a lot ofconversations around, how do we increase
the number of black studentsthat are in STEM going to STEM disciplines?
Well, if they're strong mathstudents, then that becomes an option.
Welcome back, everybody, toanother exciting show, the about
that Wallet podcast, where wehelp the Samus generation build strong
(00:22):
financial habits so that theycan talk about money, spend money,
and enjoy their money with confidence.
Today I have somebody who's not.
Who's not.
I mean, you all know this person.
He's been on the show at leasttwo other times, at least once a
year.
It seems a kill Parker.
So you gotta know who he is.
If you don't know who he is,you need to follow him.
(00:43):
Now from all this math.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great today, man.
Glad to be here.
I mean.
I mean, I know we recordingthis early on.
Well, I guess you could sayearly fall.
And a lot's been happening,especially getting back to school.
A lot of times the parents aretrying to figure out what to do with
their kids or even do itthemselves now that the kids are
(01:05):
back at school.
So can you just kind ofexplain a little bit more about,
you know, why is it importantfor the parents to start teaching
their kids about math andactually more than math, but their
financial literacy when itcomes to math?
Well, I mean, I definitely wanted.
(01:26):
Wanted to come back, you know,on your platform to have that.
Have that conversation,because, you know, I'm.
I believe financial literacyis very important, you know, such
as is economic literacy, youknow, understanding economic systems
and, you know, and us havinglarger conversations about, you know,
well, why maybe.
Why do we live in an economicsystem where we constantly have to
(01:47):
be on the defensive and haveto, you know, defend ourselves against
predatory practices and thingsof that nature?
But even if we just focus inon financial literacy, the foundation
of financial literacy ismathematical literacy.
And I want for people to make.
To bridge that gap, because alot of times people, you know, the
financial literacy is sexy.
(02:08):
You know, it's appealing, it'sattractive, you know, you know, but
then it's like, well, how doyou calculate your roi?
You know, how do youunderstand what a basis point is?
Like, how do you, you know,understand, you know, you know, asset
allocation and, you know,things of that N. This is all algebra.
It's algebra one and arithmetic.
And as parents that arewatching this, I want them to think
(02:31):
about that in terms ofdeveloping their children to be stewards
of Financial literacy.
But it starts with themathematical literacy, because once
you have the mathematicalliteracy, then the financial literacy
almost becomes second nature.
I remember being anundergraduate student at Morgan State,
(02:51):
and I was a finance major,because I never had intentions of
becoming a high school mathteacher, like, ever.
I gotta.
This is one of the best thingsthat ever happened to me.
But that was never the plan.
You know, I went on the detourand became a high school math teacher
and then a, you know, collegemath professor and, you know, an
entrepreneur with a companydedicated toward teaching math to
the black community.
(03:12):
But, you know, as a financemajor, you know, there's an expectation
that you have a certainbackground in algebra and a certain
background in math.
And, you know, so, like, I'mnot going to say my finance courses
were easy.
I mean, they were.
They were rigorous and theywere challenging at times.
But it was more concept.
The conceptual aspects werethe more rigorous part.
It wasn't the, okay, like,once I understood the formula, I
(03:34):
could, like, apply it and,like, figure out the answers to the
questions.
But if you don't have that, ifyou don't have the understanding
of algebra, don't have theunderstanding of arithmetic, how
to add fractions, how to findcommon denominators, how to deal
with decimals, how to rounddecimals, you know, you're not gonna.
You're not gonna be able tobecome financially literate.
And I think, unfortunately, alot of people want to skip that step.
(03:55):
You know, they want to just,oh, well, you know, I know I'm gonna
need this.
It's like when people, youknow, say, like, well, why isn't
school teaching us, like, howto do taxes?
And it's like, well, there area lot of re.
I could.
There's a lot of reasons for that.
I mean, you have to understandthat we live in a oppressive society
where people are not meant to.
(04:16):
Those that control thesociety, the type of society we live
in now, do not want everyoneto live up to their full potential.
Even if that's the lip servicethat we're given, even if that's
what's advertised to us,that's just not a reality.
But even still, if you want tolearn how to do taxes and things
of that nature, there's a lotof algebra and arithmetic that's
involved within that.
(04:38):
So that's foundational, youknow, to those things.
So I just want people tounderstand that and become more aggressive
and assertive and feel a senseof urgency around developing their
children to be strong math students.
Because once you're a strongmath Student.
You know, it's similar to theconversations around stem.
Like, there are a lot ofconversations around, how do we increase
(05:00):
the number of black studentsthat are in STEM going to STEM disciplines?
Well, if they're strong mathstudents, then that becomes an option
for so many of our young people.
STEM is not even an option.
Being an engineer is not an option.
Being a doctor is not an option.
Being a registered nurse,being an architect, a computer scientist,
they don't even see that as anoption because they stay away from
(05:20):
the math.
Math is the gatekeeper.
And I think that the samething can be said with finance and
with financial literacy.
I mean, and even things thatwe might, like, you and I might take
for granted at times, even aperson understanding the concept
of negative numbers, which isa concept that's unfortunately.
And I say unfortunatelybecause I think it's introduced too
(05:41):
late.
It's introduced in algebra 1.
But I think when childrenfirst learn to count, they should
learn the negative side of thenumber line.
Like, if so if I teach mychild how to count from 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, I should alsoteach them where 0 is as a boundary
and teach them how to countfrom negative 1, negative 2, negative
3, negative 4, negative 5,negative 6, negative 7.
(06:02):
I think we should all.
We should do thatsimultaneously so they don't have
to wait until they get toalgebra 1 to be introduced to that
concept of negative numbers.
How does this relate financially?
There are people that do notrealize that there is a tangible
difference between having $0in your checking account and having
a negative $200 balance inyour checking account.
(06:24):
Because to them, they may say,well, either way, I can't take any
money out.
So it's the same.
It's an equivalency.
It's not an equivalency because.
And these are the same peoplethat will get upset if they don't
understand that concept.
You know, they get.
They may get upset if theysay, okay, well, I just deposited
$400 into my account.
How come I can't withdraw $400?
Well, because you had anegative $200 balance.
(06:46):
So that has to be coveredfirst to get to.
We don't go from, you know,negative 200 plus 400 does not equal
400.
Negative 200 plus 400 equals 200.
So that's why you only have$200 available.
But these are very, like,fundamental things, you know, but
this is.
This is a mathematical issuemore than it being a financial literacy
issue.
(07:07):
So I'm just like, I'm a heavyadvocate of People just like learning,
learning math because otherwise.
And we've seen, like,especially during the pandemic, I
think there was a huge, youknow, increase in conversation around
financial literacy, which canbe a good thing.
But if the same people thatare very motivated and enthusiastic
(07:29):
about embracing financialliteracy also are the same people
that are walking aroundsaying, I'm never going to use Y
equals mx plus B in life.
I don't need to know how to calculate.
Use this form of theexponential functions.
An exponential function iscompound interest.
That's what an exponentialfunction is.
They don't know the connectionbetween that.
Then it's like, okay,apparently you must just want to
(07:53):
listen to other people talk toyou about how much money they made
or how other people tell.
Tell you stories about howthey were able to, you know, budget
and do things like that.
And you think somehow throughosmosis, you're just going to be
able to just pick that upwithout having to actually roll your
sleeves up and do some actualcalculations of your own.
So I don't, I don't.
(08:13):
And I like, yeah, I just, Iwonder about that.
Like, okay, you want to gointo real estate, cool.
But you don't reallyunderstand percentages.
So how are you going tocalculate your roi?
How are you going to calculate anything?
You know, so I'm just very bigon, like, the mathematics being the
foundation of.
And not just with financialliteracy, but a lot of things.
(08:35):
You know, mathematics is sofoundational to so many areas of
our lives.
But we also have to keep inmind the fact that, again, we live
in a very exploitative society.
So it actually benefitscertain entities, certain people
for us to be ignorant ofcertain things so that they can actually
make money.
They have a financialincentive on their part to keep us
(09:00):
ignorant so that they can makemore profit based on our ignorance,
because our ignorance is very profitable.
And a lot of us make poordecisions because of the ignorance
we make.
And then somebody has toeither come clean it up or somebody
profits off of that from usmaking that decision, that poor decision
in the first place.
And I think a lot, I mean,some of it can be attributed to a
lack of discipline.
(09:20):
I get that.
Just like even myself, like, Iknow a lot of math, but I still make
bad choices sometimes justbecause of a lack of discipline.
It's not because I didn't knowany better.
I knew better.
I just didn't want to do.
I just didn't want to dobetter at that moment.
Right.
But at least I did know better.
There's some people that don'teven know better.
So even if they do have thediscipline, they're still going to
(09:40):
do the wrong thing.
It's something that isdetrimental to themselves.
So, yeah, I want for anybodywatching this to think about the
fact that the math has to bethe foundation and we have to become
aggressive as parents withbecoming the primary educators of
our children in terms of math.
So while we're having theseconversations about, you know, being
(10:02):
financially responsible, beingfiscally responsible, those could
be mathematics lessons, thosecould be algebra lessons, you know,
and I, and I think too, one thing.
One thing, having that understanding.
Now, one thing I was justgoing to add, I was going to say
this one thing, and I want to,I want to let you jump in, is we
have to make a decision as a community.
(10:23):
And even if it's not acommunal decision and within individual
households, we have to decideas parents, do we want to keep our
financial business private andpersonal from our children or do
we want to expose them to it?
Because it can be a verytangible and rich teachable moment.
(10:47):
Because I thought about thatyears ago because I said, wow, you
know what, there's so manyopportunities we have to.
Children can have to developfinancial literacy just with the
bills that come into thehousehold every single month, but
yet we have a culture of stayoutta grown folks business, right?
(11:09):
So if your financial decisionmaking in your household is seen
as grown folks business, thenthe children never learn.
And then when they becomeadults, it's like, well, what am
I supposed to do?
Like, I never, I didn't growup, you know, practice with these
practices, right?
So I think we have to make adecision or like I said, as a community,
or at least within individualhouseholds, should we, okay, when
(11:31):
you sit down at the kitchentable or the dining room table to
do your bills every month, todo your, the budgeting and your finances
every month, do you have yourkids with you?
Because if you have your kidswith you, they can be calculating,
oh, well, this, oh.
Cause this I figure out howmuch I should pay on my credit card
or this is how we, you know,figure out how much we're gonna pay
on the, on the electric billor the gas bill or the water bill
or okay, the rent's due.
(11:51):
Okay.
You know, and how do I, how doI know, you know, how much I should
allocate to this or to that,you know what I mean?
Because I think that'ssomething that doesn't get discussed
enough.
But it is like, it's adecision that has to be made because
it's a lot.
I Think there's an opportunitythat a lot of us as parents, we may
(12:12):
miss out on because of that.
Yeah.
And I was wondering about,first off, commend you on doing all
of this work because like yousay, you don't know what the future
is going to hold for you basedon the discipline that you decide
to choose, especially asyou're going in through education,
because mathematics, yes, itopens up the world for you.
(12:34):
An engineer might look ateverything as an engineer point of
view, but I think math islooking at it like, hey, you're actually
like an ore for, like an orefor like a, I don't know, like a
steel or like you can becomeanything you want.
But you know, if you look atan engineer, they know how to make
a particular tool and oncethey make that tool, it's kind of
(12:56):
like that's all they can useit for.
So having that understandingof like where you can utilize your,
your math skills intodifferent disciplines is very important.
So when it comes tounderstanding your gift of not just
mathematics, but actuallytaking that moment to understand
what you want in life, whatwould be the first step?
(13:21):
Because you talked about theroi, how do you calculate an ROI
for something that you decidedto invest in?
So the return on investment.
So you're looking at.
Yeah, now you put me on the spot.
How do you calculate roi?
How many years?
There's a.
(13:41):
It's like percentage change.
So the value.
So what is it?
Yeah, basically it's thepercentage change formula when we
use to calculate percentagechange in a math course.
So it's new minus old dividedby old.
Basically the new.
The new value minus the oldvalue divided by the old value.
(14:02):
So it's the change.
And so this is Y equals MXplus B.
This is basically slope, right?
It's basically slope.
That's what it is.
Right.
The M and Y equals MX plus B.
So the new value minus the oldvalue, the change in value as a fraction
of the original value.
Right.
Because we're comparing it tothe original value.
Right.
(14:23):
So we talk, you know, realestate values.
You know, it could beanything, you know, the cost of something,
the cost of anything, youknow, And I think that's important
to be able to do because thenwe start to begin to function more
like producers and not only as consumers.
Right.
(14:43):
Business owners, entrepreneurs.
One of the things I advocatefor as just a daily math practice
in households is have children.
I mean, adults should, I thinkadults should do this, but I think
the children should.
All the adults should beshowing children and encouraging
children to calculate unitPrice of everything.
(15:03):
Case in point, if you get abig bag of chips, it could be Ruffles,
Doritos, whatever, whateveryou like, right?
You can calculate how manychips are in that bag and then you
can calculate the unit price,not per ounce, because the store,
the grocery store, just do itby ounce, right?
But I'm saying, like, that'snot as relevant to me.
(15:24):
I want to know how much onechip costs.
So when I eat one chip, I knowhow much I'm actually consuming on
a monetary basis.
And if you look on thenutrition information on the back
of the bag of chips, it'lltell you how many servings are in
the bag, it'll tell you howmany chips per serving.
So therefore, you can do themultiplication and figure out how
many chips on average are inthat bag approximately.
(15:48):
And then if you want to knowthe cost, you know, relative cost
of one chip, you would justcalculate the unit price.
You would take the, the totalamount of money that the bag cost.
How much did the bag maybe was.
Five bags of chips areexpensive now.
Like $6, sometimes seven bagof Doritos, like $7 now.
Ridiculous.
(16:08):
And then you divide it by thenumber of chips in the bag.
And that's a way to also talkabout the concept of division.
What division actually means,what's happening when you divide?
And then your child couldknow, okay, so when I consume this,
this is a, this is actually,you know, monetary I'm using.
I'm thinking of it in terms ofa different metric.
(16:30):
So you might even want to sayto your child, like, you know, if
they want some shit, they'regoing to the kitchen.
Like, you know, mom, dad, canI, you know, can I get some chips?
Well, and you might say, yeah,but one of the things you could do
is say, well, instead of justgetting a handful of chips or just
pouring chips into the bowlhalf haphazardly, right?
Say you can have 50 cent worthof chips, you can have 75 cent worth
(16:53):
of chips.
And they might look at you,well, how am I supposed to know that?
Calculate it, figure out howmuch, figure out how much one chip
costs.
And then, so if one chip is 5cent based on the cost of this total
bag of chips and the number ofchips in the bag, then, okay, if
you get 75 cent worth, okay,one chip is 5 cent, then again division.
(17:14):
And also it's like it'sdeveloping that number sense in a
controlled environment, in asafe environment.
Because oftentimes schoolenvironments are not safe.
You know, we're not in aposition to feel Vulnerable enough
to actually be open enough to learn.
A lot of times, oftentimes youhave teachers that are not trained
as well as they need to be inorder to deliver instruction in a
(17:36):
way where students can reallyunderstand it and internalize it.
But you figure that out, yousay, okay, well, if it's 5 cent for
one chip, it's gonna be 10cent for two chips.
Two chips is 10 cent.
Now, you might sit there, thechild might sit there and just count
up all the way to 75.
Or they might realize, wait aminute, what if I use this tool called
division, and I did 75 dividedby 5?
(18:01):
And then I figure that out andI say, oh, okay, that's 15.
So that means I can get 15 chips.
Now, somebody might belistening to this saying, man, ain't
nobody about to do all that.
That's crazy.
That's tedious.
Nobody's about to count.
No child's about to count out15 chips.
But what if you tell them todo it, right?
You tell them to do it, andit's a practice and with the goal
(18:24):
of them developing theirmathematical fluency and mathematical
understanding so that they canultimately be a better critical thinker.
Because I think that's anotherissue we have in our community in
terms of not knowing what thevalue of mathematics really is.
Like, what's the value ofknowing mathematics?
We often equate it to, youknow, in a capitalist sense.
(18:46):
Well, what type of job can I get?
So then if you say, well, if Idon't want to be an architect or
I don't want to be anengineer, that means I don't need
to know math.
But then you're missing out onthe opportunity just to be a better
problem solver.
Right?
Just a better problem solver,a better critical thinker.
Mathematics, to me, is a classwhere you actually get to sit in
(19:06):
class and practice critical thinking.
Yes.
Every day you're justpracticing critical thinking.
Solving word problems, solvingequations, you know, thinking about,
simplifying expressions.
That's.
That's.
Those are exercises incritical thinking, which is a transferable
skill to any area or facet of life.
And unfortunately, it's not.
(19:29):
Math is not marketed that way.
It was never marketed to methat way.
Or if it was, maybe I justwasn't paying attention.
I didn't get it right.
If a teacher.
If a math teacher did tell me that.
But if they did, it wasn'tenough of them.
Not enough of them did that.
But it really is that.
It really is that.
But we often just.
It becomes something that wewant to evade and avoid, and it becomes
(19:52):
like a necessary evil.
Even a lot of students likemyself that excelled in math, we
never really bought into it.
We didn't have a love for itbecause we just saw it as a, you
saw it as a necessary evil.
A lot of us, and we justwanted to get the good grades, but
we didn't really want tounderstand the math.
And I think that is anotherissue because then you start to,
(20:12):
or you develop this habit ofonly focusing on algorithms, memorizing
algorithms, memorizing thesteps without any real understanding
of the concepts that areembedded within the math problems
or within the algorithms thatyou're using.
And then you end up not beingable to really apply the algebra
or the geometry or the precalculus concepts in other areas
(20:35):
of life.
And we also have to considerthat there are people that do have
deep understanding of maththat are able to apply it in other
areas of life.
Which brings me to this pointreal quick.
I want to say a lot of peopleoften will say, well, why do I need
to know this?
When am I ever going to use this?
I think that we need to beless concerned with when we may use
it and more concerned with thepeople that are learning it and when
(20:58):
they're going to use it andwhat they are using it for.
Because ultimately they'reusing math.
I totally agree with that.
Yeah, they're using math tocreate algorithms and systems that
are going to affect all of ourlives and always have affected all
of our lives.
Because we have to askourselves this question.
The person that gets thebachelor's degree in pure mathematics,
(21:20):
pure or applied mathematics,the master's degree in pure or applied
mathematics, the PhD in pureor applied mathematics, what is that
person doing?
They're probably going into,they might go into private industry,
they're working for acorporation, they may work for Google,
they may work for Facebook,they may work for, well, meta, you
know, working for Facebook orInstagram, developing algorithms
(21:41):
that are going to develop andinfluence our own personal tastes
and the things that we like.
So they're creating algorithmsthat are meant to control our lives
while we think that, thatwe're making choices of our own.
Like a lot of us when we go onYouTube or a streaming app, they're
telling us what we like.
Oftentimes we don't even thinkabout what type of music we like
(22:03):
anymore because they just tellus to us or they predict, okay, well
if you like this, then youprobably like this.
Well, maybe I wouldn't like that.
But your algorithm that somemathematician created is Telling
me what I like.
So my point is that we need tostart thinking more about.
More of us need to startthinking not, not so much about that
I may not use something, butwhat the people that are using it,
(22:26):
what are they doing with it?
Because when we say, well, Idon't need to know this, but then
there's some people that areembracing it and realize that they
need to know and they want toknow it.
We're setting ourselves up forasymmetrical warfare because a lot
of times math is weaponizedagainst the population, and then
(22:47):
you end up saying, well, I didn't.
I don't need to know calculus.
But then the person that knowscalculus is creating systems that
are, that are affecting yourlife every day.
So then now you show up tothe, to the, to the gunfight, thinking
you about the box, and thenyou get shot and you die.
That's, that's really what happens.
It's like when people, it'slike when people say, I'm not into
politics.
I don't get into all that.
(23:08):
Well, politics is into you.
Because political politiciansmake policy that affects your life,
that affects the economics ofyour community that you know, and
that affects whether you mayhave a job, you know, that affects
this factory or this companyis going to be able to function here.
What if they're going torelocate and then you don't have
a job.
But all along you talkingabout, well, you, you don't.
(23:30):
Politics don't got nothing todo with your life.
Politics has everything to dowith your life.
Politics determines whetherthis plant may open up and it may
affect whether you have cleandrinking water.
That's all political.
Everything is political.
So the same way people areconditioned to think that politics
is irrelevant except forelectoral politics.
(23:52):
So every four years I gottavote for a president.
Every two years I might votefor a congressman or whatever.
They do the same thing.
We do the same thing withmathematics a lot.
We think, well, the math is irrelevant.
It's not going to affect my life.
Well, there are people thatall learn the math that are making
decisions just likepoliticians are, that are affecting
your life every day.
So it just makes sense to meto understand the tool that they're
(24:12):
using to affect your life.
And I think that's somethingthat as parents, we got to start
thinking about and we got tostart having these conversations
with our children early onbecause the children, just like as
adults, a lot of us havetapped out and don't want to affiliate
with math because of a lot ofreasons, sometimes negative experiences
in classrooms Growing up, ourchildren are tapping out too, and
(24:33):
we got to keep them engaged.
Because when the children saymath is boring, math is too difficult,
and then they say math isirrelevant and I don't need it, I'll
be fine without it.
They're basically, they'recooked at that point.
I mean, they can be reverted,right, with the proper guidance after
(24:56):
that point.
But if they don't get thatpropaganda, it's their cook.
Because now what you said iswith mathematics being the gatekeeper
for so many opportunities, letalone the critical thinking ability,
it will develop, but just jobopportunities and career opportunities
now, you're never going tobecome the physician, you're never
going to become the registerednurse, the computer scientist.
You never, you probably won'tbe able to go into finance fields,
(25:18):
accounting.
You need those math skills.
So then what happens is youeither like graduate from high school,
maybe you don't even go tocollege, or if you do go to college,
when it's time to choose amajor, what do you do?
Oh, let me pick, let me findthe major that requires the least
amount of math coursework.
I've heard that conversation.
So I could just stay away fromthe math.
(25:39):
And then all the while, thepeople that have been trained to
embrace the math and runtowards it, they're more comfortable
because they have lesscompetition, because a lot of the
would be competition hasdisqualified themselves.
And then, you know, a lot ofpeople that create the environment
for that, where people willdisqualify themselves, they get plausible
(26:01):
deniability because then theysay, oh, well, we didn't tell these
black kids that they couldn'tbe engineers.
We didn't tell these blackkids they couldn't be doctors.
We didn't tell these blackkids they couldn't be physicists,
quantum physicists, and, and,you know, you know, architects.
We didn't tell them that.
No, but what you did was youconveniently and in a very insidious
(26:23):
way created an environmentwhere they would fear math and stay
away from math, knowing thatmath is the gatekeeper toward those
opportunities.
So that's what you did.
Right?
Which, and the solution tothat is, for me, we have to develop
parents to become moreaggressive with becoming the primary
educators for their children.
(26:44):
Because then thoseenvironments that are created to
make our children scared ofmath and run away from it, they become
less relevant.
Because now, well, you know,you, you don't have as much power
in my household, because in myhousehold, okay, we're talking about,
we're having mathematicalconversations every day.
And then, you know, and thenthat like we said earlier, then my
child is going to be morefinancially liberate and less likely
(27:06):
to be taken advantage of.
And they may not ever need touse credit repair.
They may not ever need to, youknow, repair some mistakes that they
made when they were in theirearly 20s or when they first went
to college and got their firstcredit card.
Because as a young child, theyhad math skills that then lended
themselves to them beingfinancially literate, you know.
(27:30):
Yeah.
So that's a lot to unpack there.
Especially because of the useof mathematics and the tying of it
to the politics side of the house.
We have to kind of think aboutwhat is the importance of how we
live in our lives going forward.
(27:51):
Your TV is actually reallyloud, dude.
Not sure.
I think that's my.
My mom is on the phone.
Hold on, hold on one second.
(28:17):
All right, cool.
Yeah, it was just the feedback.
I wasn't sure.
So now that we kind of got tothis point, now that, you know, understand
the importance of having theparents involved and being active
again.
And the reason why I say againis because, you know, with technology
(28:38):
and AI is actually enforcingpeople to actually do more with less
now, now that the parentsmight be able to go, might be home
a little later or sooner, theycan actually provide some different
type of activities for their child.
So looking into the future,how is AI really going to impact
and how to bridge that gap ofeducation with their children?
(29:04):
I think if it's used as a tool.
Right.
And not as a replacement forhuman thinking, then AI can be healthy.
It can be a healthy tool.
Right.
To assist with developingcritical thinking ability.
My concern is that a lot ofpeople, especially people that have
bought into this notion thatmath is irrelevant and that effort
(29:24):
should not be dedicated towardlearning it, they're going to allow
AI to do the work for them,which is going to lead us to just
becoming dumber, because thenwe're not going to learn how to do
the things.
We're not going to have the practice.
Right.
I mean, the same could beapplied to calculators.
Right.
But then you got to know how to.
(29:46):
You have to have somemathematical aptitude, though, or
else there's going to beoperator error.
Right.
Similar.
Similar with AI.
But I think what has to happenis we.
We have to use it as a.
Just that, as a tool.
It's gotta be a tool.
It can't be a replacement forour brains.
It can't be.
(30:06):
Even though it's.
It's touted as being veryconvenient, you know, and.
And it is.
It's convenient.
It, you know, it's helpful at times.
But I think what has to happenis we got to think about the long
term effects of that convenience.
Because when you get so usedto just allowing a computer program
to do the work for you, thenwhen do you practice doing the work
(30:28):
and when you don't practicedoing the work, then how do you learn
how to do the work?
How are you able to do it?
Your brain atrophies.
Similar to when we have abroken bone.
We have a broken bone, youhave a cast on, then what happens
to that muscle?
It's not being utilized.
And then when the cast comesoff, it's very flabby and it's, you
(30:51):
know, it's, it's underdeveloped.
Right.
Because it hasn't been used.
And then you end up forgettingsaying, man, how do I do that?
You know?
So we have to be very carefulwith AI, right?
I think very careful.
And we have to be, we have touse it responsibly.
Just like how they say weplease drink responsibly, please
gamble responsibly.
I don't know what that means.
(31:11):
Gamble responsibly.
Like, I don't know how youtake like an addictive behavior and
tell somebody to like beresponsible with an addictive behavior.
I don't know.
At least for me, like, and I'ma per.
I have an addictive personality.
So I'm like, some things, likebeing responsible, it just means
not doing it.
You know what I'm saying?
Like for some of us, maybethere's some people that can handle
that, but for some of us it'slike, nah, man, I mean, that seems
(31:35):
like a oxymoron.
Like, to be responsible meansI just gotta abstain.
I just, I just can't, I justcan't do it, you know?
So we gotta think about, theseare things we gotta think about.
And these are someconversations that have to be had
in the community or at leastin individual households.
Yeah.
When it usually comes togambling responsibility, responsible.
I'm sure they mean like, hey,like, know your limits.
(31:59):
Like, you're not gonna go overthe amount that you don't mind losing.
Same thing with drinking.
If you're going to have adrink, one drink.
If you're going to gamble, domaybe one or two slides.
That's it.
Not meaning, hey, one drink,meaning the whole bottle of wine,
but one glass or one cup.
And so I get what they mean bydoing it responsibly.
(32:21):
It's like speeding like that.
Some people are just chronicspeeders just kind of like, look,
slow it down a little bit, youknow, moderate, actually.
You shouldn't be speeding.
But the same thing.
I think one of the things thatcame through years ago when I was
in the vegan community, theywas like, either you all in or you're
not.
And one of the things, I thinkI was cooking something and I utilized
(32:42):
egg.
And it was like they kind of gave.
They ran me through the ringer.
Either you full vegan oryou're not.
And I was like, okay, yeah, right.
So I'm vegetarian.
That's where I left it at.
I was like, okay, lesson learned.
But it was just some nasty people.
And they was like, either youin it or you're not.
And I was like, I get it.
You can't be.
There is no transition period.
(33:02):
You just gotta cut it.
Yeah, I get it.
I get it.
Yeah.
No, no leather clothes, noanimal products whatsoever.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a commitment.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a major commitment.
So going back to, like yousaid, with the parents, they gotta
have that commitment to reallywanna educate their children and
really do the best that they can.
So with the future, we talkedabout utilizing AI so it's a parent.
(33:26):
We just got to make sure that they.
Well, just make sure that theykind of continuously pour into their
children or educate themselves first.
Like putting a mask on firstbefore you start teaching your children.
Is that kind of the best wayto go?
Yes.
Yes.
And I think we have toreorient ourselves to the purpose
of school.
Like, what is school for?
I think for a very long time,we have been conditioned to completely
(33:50):
outsource education to public,charter and private schools.
Whereas we see, and I saywe've been conditioned this way.
So this is not an attack onparents, but it's a recognition that
this is how we were taught.
And I think it's a form ofmiseducation that we've all received,
myself included.
Right.
Where we see good parenting asfinding the best school for our child.
(34:14):
Right.
The best school outside thehousehold for our child.
Right.
Once I do that, I'm done.
Right.
I've done my part.
I'm gonna send them to you.
You teaching the algebra, youteach me the calculus, you teach
me the trigonometry.
What we have to realize isthat most schools are not equipped
for true education.
(34:35):
Most schools are test prep centers.
And if we understand anythingabout test prep, ACT prep, SAT prep,
standardized test prep, we.
We understand that with testprep, that's mostly about teaching
children strategies to be Ableto answer the greatest amount of
questions correctly andeffectively within the time allotted
(34:56):
on the actual test.
It's really not aboutproviding fundamental understanding
of, like, SAT Prep.
There's algebra one on sat.
There's geometry on satisfaction.
SAT prep is not for teachingalgebra one.
It's not for teaching geometry.
When you come to SAT Prep,you're supposed to already have a
(35:16):
solid foundation in algebraand geometry.
Whereas when we see these SATquestions, we're focusing on understanding
the word problem, being ableto decode the messaging within it.
That's what SAT Prep is for schools.
In large part, I'll speak formathematics specifically.
The math class is really for that.
So then the question becomes,where's the child gonna get the fundamental
(35:40):
mathematical training if theydon't get it in school?
Where else are they gonna get it?
They gotta get it in the household.
So as a community, there hasto be a huge paradigm shift, and
we have to begin to say, youknow what?
I'm gonna be the primaryeducator for my child so that when
they go to school, they'reready for the test prep.
And then the test reallybecomes irrelevant, because now it's
easy because they have a solidfoundation, which they get at home.
(36:03):
But then people in thecommunity, such as myself, have to
create resources, which iswhat I.
Which is what.
One of the main things I dowith all this math is create resources
for the parents.
Because it's easy to tell aparent, well, you got to be the primary
education, right?
That's how.
And then the parent willrespond to that and say, oh, here's
something else.
Now I got to do this.
Now you're telling mesomething else.
I got to do something else I'mdoing wrong, right?
You got to create resources.
(36:24):
You got to help.
You got to help to facilitate that.
So this is why I created myYouTube channel.
This is why I add content tomy YouTube channel, the all this
Math YouTube channel.
And we.
And we have over a thousandvideos now.
Nice.
Last time I was on here, wedefinitely didn't have that many
videos, but.
But yeah, we.
We just eclipsed 1,000 videos.
Congrats.
(36:44):
We have eight.
I appreciate you.
I appreciate you.
We have 8,000 subscribers.
So there's content on there, right?
Where my audience on theYouTube channel is youth students,
right, that want to kind ofget better understanding, but also
parents.
Parents that want to betterunderstand the way math is being
taught today so that they canhelp their children.
Also teachers, early careerteachers, even veteran teachers that
(37:07):
may want to get a.
Another method of teachingsomething, you know, that they may
have not seen before or maybethey haven't taught it in, like 10
years, you know, so they'relike, you know, because math is like
a use it or lose it type.
Type subject, right?
So.
So this is why the resourcesare available.
And speaking of.
And in terms of parents aswell, my book, how to use all this
(37:27):
math, Volume one.
My book, Volume two is coming.
I just gotta buckle down anddiscipline myself and actually write
it.
But volume one is a.
Is a resource guide where Itake different examples of everyday
activities and show how thoseactivities can double as arithmetic
lessons, algebra lessons,geometry lessons.
(37:48):
So I'm trying to create asituation where you don't have to
alter your regular daily lifethat much and still help your child.
Teach your child certain mathskills and have them practice them
on a regular basis.
Like, earlier we talked aboutfinding unit price.
The unit price.
How much is one chip in this bag?
(38:08):
How much is one cookie in this package?
How much is one piece of candyin this, you know, bag of M&MS.
Or whatever candy your child likes?
Have them calculate that.
And when you.
And it's about the repetition.
What is.
What does the brother say?
The brother named.
The brother named MarcusKlein, who runs Freedom Home Academy
out in Chicago, does good work.
(38:30):
Independent school.
You know, I've been followingthis brother for years.
I commend him on his efforts.
He always talks about with hisstudents, repetition duration and
frequency.
That's what we have to do inour households, right?
Got to do that in a household.
Because we can't always.
That's not always taking placein the schools.
But we.
We should be able to controlwhat happens in our households.
So the children need thatrepetition, the duration and the
(38:53):
frequency so that they candevelop those skills.
And like, in this brother,like, if you go on Facebook, you'll
see him posting videos withhim teaching algebra one concepts
to his second and thirdgraders, which can be done.
It's not outlandish.
I taught abstract algebra tothird graders, so.
Exactly.
Too easy.
(39:14):
You know, we can.
The expectations are too lowfor our children.
And a lot of that comes to alot of these low expectations we
have in mathematics.
Because I'm sure people will cringe.
You say, oh, teaching algebra,the second graders, a lot of that,
that initial, like, triggeredresponse that a lot of adults would
have from hearing that comesfrom them projecting their own personal
insecurities and their ownfear of mathematics, saying, well,
(39:38):
how can they be able to do that?
You can't do that.
Like, no, because I didn't do that.
I was in ninth grade and 10thgrade, and I didn't understand.
I was one.
Well, there probably were someinstructional practices that weren't
suitable to you, but you could have.
It can be taught much earlierthan what.
And that's another thing forparents to keep in mind.
We don't.
The curriculum and the gradelevels that certain topics are taught
(40:02):
at.
That is a suggestion.
That is an opinion of peoplethat make education policy, people
that you'll probably nevermeet and probably will never meet
you and probably don'tunderstand or don't care about the
needs of your children andtheir future.
So that's another reason whywe as parents have to say, you know
what?
I have to make some different decisions.
So if you're telling me whenmy child is in the fifth grade they
(40:26):
should be doing this, youshould stop and think, well, why
can't they do what the 8thgraders are doing?
Why can't they do what 9thgraders are doing?
A lot of these, you know,these curricula and the grade levels,
it's all arbitrary.
So that's just a suggestion.
So we gotta.
We gotta keep that in mind.
We gotta keep that in mindtoo, because, you know, we want to.
(40:49):
We want our children to, youknow, be exposed to as much math
as possible.
Right?
We can't keep running awayfrom the math.
We got to run towards it.
That's the key.
They say, what is the book called?
Eat the Frog.
You gotta do the hard stuffearly because they got more time
to really dive into to that.
Because as we getting older,we need those hard things to become
(41:12):
second nature.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's another way to create.
I'm glad you brought that up.
That's another way to createtime by exposing children to complex
topics at an earlier age.
Because at an early age you got.
Because you got time to mess up.
Like, you know, you know, myson is six.
He's in first grade.
You know, Baltimore CityPublic Schools has their curriculum,
(41:34):
and that's fine.
But I know what I'm doing withthem, right?
So I may do.
I'm doing some more advancedthings with them, right?
And if he doesn't get it atfirst, that's cool.
Cause we got time, you know,we got.
We got time to mess up.
But if you just wait, andhere's a trap that a lot of parents
fall into.
They'll allow the schooldistrict to do their thing.
And then at the last minute,they're like, okay, now I gotta help
(41:56):
you with this.
So now we gotta cram.
If we have to cram, there'sGonna be stress if there's stress.
It's difficult to teach andlearn in a stressful environment.
Man.
Seem like we can just talk forhours and hours on this master.
Because I enjoy this topic.
Yeah.
(42:17):
So because I had you on theshow before, I always still ask these
final four questions.
Is there anything you want tosay before we dive into these final
four?
Make sure you, you like andsubscribe the all this math YouTube
channel.
Make sure you do that.
You know, go over to Amazon,get a copy of the book how to Use
(42:38):
all this Math, Volume one byKil Parker.
And you know, as a parent,give yourself grease and realize
that even if you didn't have apositive experience growing up in
school, in math classes, thatmay not have been your fault, number
(42:59):
one.
Number two, you're older now,so, and you've lived life so the
mathematics that you didn'tunderstand when you were 12 or 9,
right?
Like those word problems thatwere about, you know, adult situations
like buying groceries, youknow, driving a car across the country
and, you know, trying tocalculate different things, that
(43:23):
was irrelevant to you becauseit was beyond the scope of your experience.
But now you've had those experiences.
So now the math, like we haveto understand math is also a language.
So it's really just a means of.
In one way you could think ofit as a way to articulate our lived
experiences, but as a childyou haven't had those lived experiences.
(43:43):
So it's even more challengingto learn math, certain types of math
at certain young ages tolearn, depending upon how it's presented.
Right.
If you haven't had theexperience, you know, so, so yeah,
so get, you know, give, giveyourself self grace and you know,
try, try it again now.
Plus also your frontal lobewasn't fully developed when you were
(44:05):
a child, so that also makes itdifficult to understand things.
All right, so you ready forthe front of the fork?
Yes.
Foreign.
So the final four questions,for those of you who are new to the
(44:26):
show, these questions are justkind of wrap up questions to end
the show.
Out with the bang.
You get to learn a little bitmore about the guests and how they
actually view money.
So question one, what doeswealth mean to you?
Wealth.
Wealth means to me.
(44:48):
Well, a lot of things, but onething that comes to mind is not having
to be stressed about expenses.
Almost taking for granted thatyour bills will be paid and your
needs will be met.
Your financial needs will be met.
(45:12):
Number two, what was yourworst money mistake?
Worst money mistake?
Not saving.
Not.
Not becoming committed tosaving at a saving and Investing
at an earlier age.
(45:32):
Yeah.
Buying and.
And instead being morecommitted to buying depreciable assets
or liabilities.
Yeah.
Number three, is there a bookthat inspired your journey or changed
your perspective?
(45:53):
Definitely.
But if I had to narrow it downto one.
So one of the many books Iwould say is.
I would say AssataAutobiography of Assata Shakur, and
(46:17):
Rest in Peace to her.
The reason I bring that up isbecause her political analysis, and
just as many of Those in the1970s, like during the Black Power
movement, influenced me tothink about money differently, to
think about wealthdifferently, to think about our economic
(46:37):
systems differently.
And again, to my point earlierabout financial literacy, while it
is very important, I hope thatit leads us to conversations on economic
literacy and us even thinkingabout and starting to question, like,
well, why do we have to existin this kind of economic system?
(47:00):
If you think about the factthat so much of financial literacy
is learning how to playdefense and protect yourself from
being exploited.
So with that in mind, then thequestion should be, why do we exist
within an economic systemwhere we're constantly trying to
protect ourselves from being exploited?
(47:21):
Why not have an economicsystem where exploitation is not
the norm and whereexploitation is not incentivized?
Because if so many companiesare making billions and billions
of dollars off of thefinancial exploitation of people,
people that do not havefinancial literacy, then why do we
have to exist within that typeof system?
(47:42):
You know, and I understandthat's aspirational, but I think
that, you know, everything.
Any change always starts withan aspiration, you know, So I would
say, like, you know, asada was def.
That was that concept.
And that topic was one of thethings that she talked about in her
autobiography.
Got it.
All right.
And number four, what is yourfavorite dish to make?
(48:06):
Favorite dish to make.
I don't cook as much as I.
As I should, but.
And I don't make veryelaborate meals.
Um, I gotta say, I don't know.
Something basic.
Spaghetti.
Yeah, Spaghetti.
(48:27):
Sugar.
Do you do sugar in yours orkeep it sugar?
Nah.
Okay.
Nah, nah, nah, nah.
I don't do sugar.
I don't.
And I don't.
I don't add ketchup, you know,to it.
I don't.
You know, I know people thatdo that too.
Like.
Nah, what am I more of a.
More of a purist or like, spaghetti?
Purist.
Purist.
I'm a purist.
(48:49):
Nice.
Well, I mean, this is the verylast question of the show, which
is, where could people findout more about you?
Yes.
So my website, allthismath.com is actually being revamped
as we speak.
It should be.
The updated website should be,you know, available next week.
But the current, as of now,the current website is still still
(49:10):
available, so.
Www.allthismaf.com all also onsocial media, YouTube, the YouTube
channel.
Please like and subscribe and share.
Share with people, Share withthe community.
I want everybody to know about it.
You know, I want people to beable to go and get the help that
they need.
You know, I want, I wantchildren to see that black people
do math, right?
So if they never had a blackmath teacher or never had a black
(49:32):
teacher, they can see abrother like me, you know, up at
the board doing math problems,they can see that they can be exposed
to that.
That does a lot, you know, forthem psychologically.
It did a lot for me in schoolwhen I had black male teachers.
So on YouTube and also you'regonna get some black history lessons
mixed in with the math videos,math content as well.
(49:54):
Also on Instagram, TikTok,Facebook, all this math.
You can, you know, feel freeto reach out and please do, please
do, you know.
Yeah.
Awesome.
All right.
Thank youk for coming through.
Really sharing that knowledgeand really bringing in the importance
(50:14):
of what a parent can do withtheir child and actually really kind
of change the dynamic in thatconversation around the everyday
household regarding math ineveryday life and how that they can
actually branch out todifferent avenues.
I forgot to say one thing.
I'm sorry to interrupt.
Can I say one, one last thing?
You just reminded me of something.
That's cool.
(50:35):
One of the things I recommendto parents, especially at the beginning
of the school year, this is aperfect time for this.
So this is September, right?
Whatever grade your child isin, right?
Find out.
Go online or go to.
Either go to the school or goonline and look up sample questions
from the standardized testthat the MAV standardized test that
(50:58):
they will be taking in May atthe end of the school year.
Print it out.
Print out those samplequestions or save it, you know, to
your hard drive or whateveryou gotta do or go to the school
and get a copy.
This is the 2025, 2026 school year.
So there may be samplequestions from 24, 25.
If not, 23, 24, maybe.
Should definitely be available.
But print out those questions.
(51:20):
Look at those questions.
As a parent, become familiarwith those questions.
And if you do not know how todo those questions, then that is
an assignment for you.
I want for all parents,regardless of what grade your child
is in, find out whatstandardized math test they will
be taking from state to state.
If it's Maryland, it's the mcat.
If it's Pennsylvania, it'seither the PSSA or the Keystone Algebra
(51:43):
one.
If they're in high school,Every state or, you know, even D.C.
has, D.C. has, I think, thePARCC test, I think.
But every state has their own test.
But print, because that's agood barometer and a measuring stick
for what your child isexpected to know to be considered
a proficient math student.
So you, as the parent, youmake sure you can do those problems.
(52:07):
And if you're wondering, well,why do I got to do those problems?
I'm not in school.
Because if you can do thoseproblems, that means you can help
your child to understand howto do those problems.
That's the key.
And also it'll kind of, youknow, allow you to develop some empathy
for your children, too.
Because when the news mediacomes out at the end, you know, the
(52:28):
end of every summer when thetest grades are released and they
talk about how low the testgrades are and how so many students
were, you know, below basicand only, you know, 1% of students
are performing proficient orwhatever, we automatically assume,
like, man, these kids are dumb.
Like, they can barely do math.
Like, nah, the kids aren't dumb.
(52:48):
They're not well trained andthey're not motivated, many of them.
But also, these tests are not easy.
But a lot of parents havenever seen the test or the type of
questions that are on the test.
A lot of teachers in the sameschool buildings with college degrees
would also fail these tests.
A lot of those principals andvice principals would fail these
(53:10):
tests.
A lot of the guidancecounselors would fail these tests.
Right?
Those same adults that kind ofhave this very condescending attitude
about the students.
And because they.
Because they fit.
The failure is so widespread.
So I think a lot of us need tobecome more exposed to the type of
content that is on thesetests, because it's not.
(53:30):
They're not straightforwardmath problems.
There are a lot of wordproblems, right, which require understanding
of various levels of mathematics.
Right.
But as a parent, you want toknow what your child is up against.
So beginning of the year, thisis a perfect time.
Go online, find the sampletest questions from the state standardized
(53:53):
test that your child will beexpected to take in May of the following
year, of May of.
At the end of the May of thatschool year.
So familiarize yourself with it.
Find out a way to understand it.
And if you have time on yourside, you might say, okay, well,
let's.
Let's let's focus on thesethree or four types of problems per
month, or four or five typesof problems per month, right?
(54:16):
And then by the time Maycomes, right?
Because you don't know what'sgoing on in the school.
Ideally, the school would havesome type of plan for test prep to
prepare them for this test.
But oftentimes it doesn'thappen, you know, or oftentimes there
are too many learning gapswhere what's being offered in the
school is not beneficial tothe child because of those learning
(54:37):
gaps.
You know, it's like, you know,we talked, like I mentioned spaghetti
earlier.
Like, if I'm trying to teachsomebody how to, you know, make spaghetti,
but they don't know how toboil pasta, like, that's the problem,
bro.
You gotta learn how to boil pasta.
Then come back, you know,like, what are you doing?
You know, there are learning gaps.
There's too many learninggaps, right?
Cause you're not at the.
(54:58):
At the level to really gain,to really be able to use for this
to be useful, right?
So.
But.
But parents, in terms of beingmore conscientious, in terms of taking
more ownership of theirchild's education, get that standardized
test, print it out.
Get a previous standardizedtest, print it out, become familiar
with it, you know, read theproblems, see for yourself how difficult
(55:19):
it is.
See for yourself why.
So you.
Then you'll know, like, why you.
Why some of your kids just puttheir pencil down or, well, they're
all online now.
While some of your kids just.
Just pick anything and justkeep pushing the buttons, just going
through and without eventhinking about it, not even thinking
about what the question sayingor even reading them, because they
get academic fatigue, right?
Familiarize yourself with itso you can be.
Have.
Having awareness.
(55:43):
All right, with that, we justgoing to wrap up the show.
Thank you.
All right, everybody, y' allbe out.
Peace.
Peace.
Sam.
Because once you're a strongmath student, you know, it's similar
to the conversations around stem.
Like, there are a lot ofconversations around, how do we increase
the number of black studentsthat are in STEM going to STEM disciplines?
Well, if they're strong mathstudents, then that becomes an option.
Welcome back, everybody, toanother exciting show, the about
that Wallet podcast, where wehelp the Samus generation build strong
(00:22):
financial habits so that theycan talk about money, spend money,
and enjoy their money with confidence.
Today I have somebody who's not.
Who's not.
I mean, you all know this person.
He's been on the show at leasttwo other times, at least once a
year.
It seems a kill Parker.
So you gotta know who he is.
If you don't know who he is,you need to follow him.
(00:43):
Now from all this math.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great today, man.
Glad to be here.
I mean.
I mean, I know we recordingthis early on.
Well, I guess you could sayearly fall.
And a lot's been happening,especially getting back to school.
A lot of times the parents aretrying to figure out what to do with
their kids or even do itthemselves now that the kids are
(01:05):
back at school.
So can you just kind ofexplain a little bit more about,
you know, why is it importantfor the parents to start teaching
their kids about math andactually more than math, but their
financial literacy when itcomes to math?
Well, I mean, I definitely wanted.
(01:26):
Wanted to come back, you know,on your platform to have that.
Have that conversation,because, you know, I'm.
I believe financial literacyis very important, you know, such
as is economic literacy, youknow, understanding economic systems
and, you know, and us havinglarger conversations about, you know,
well, why maybe.
Why do we live in an economicsystem where we constantly have to
(01:47):
be on the defensive and haveto, you know, defend ourselves against
predatory practices and thingsof that nature?
But even if we just focus inon financial literacy, the foundation
of financial literacy ismathematical literacy.
And I want for people to make.
To bridge that gap, because alot of times people, you know, the
financial literacy is sexy.
(02:08):
You know, it's appealing, it'sattractive, you know, you know, but
then it's like, well, how doyou calculate your roi?
You know, how do youunderstand what a basis point is?
Like, how do you, you know,understand, you know, you know, asset
allocation and, you know,things of that N. This is all algebra.
It's algebra one and arithmetic.
And as parents that arewatching this, I want them to think
(02:31):
about that in terms ofdeveloping their children to be stewards
of Financial literacy.
But it starts with themathematical literacy, because once
you have the mathematicalliteracy, then the financial literacy
almost becomes second nature.
I remember being anundergraduate student at Morgan State,
(02:51):
and I was a finance major,because I never had intentions of
becoming a high school mathteacher, like, ever.
I gotta.
This is one of the best thingsthat ever happened to me.
But that was never the plan.
You know, I went on the detourand became a high school math teacher
and then a, you know, collegemath professor and, you know, an
entrepreneur with a companydedicated toward teaching math to
the black community.
(03:12):
But, you know, as a financemajor, you know, there's an expectation
that you have a certainbackground in algebra and a certain
background in math.
And, you know, so, like, I'mnot going to say my finance courses
were easy.
I mean, they were.
They were rigorous and theywere challenging at times.
But it was more concept.
The conceptual aspects werethe more rigorous part.
It wasn't the, okay, like,once I understood the formula, I
(03:34):
could, like, apply it and,like, figure out the answers to the
questions.
But if you don't have that, ifyou don't have the understanding
of algebra, don't have theunderstanding of arithmetic, how
to add fractions, how to findcommon denominators, how to deal
with decimals, how to rounddecimals, you know, you're not gonna.
You're not gonna be able tobecome financially literate.
And I think, unfortunately, alot of people want to skip that step.
(03:55):
You know, they want to just,oh, well, you know, I know I'm gonna
need this.
It's like when people, youknow, say, like, well, why isn't
school teaching us, like, howto do taxes?
And it's like, well, there area lot of re.
I could.
There's a lot of reasons for that.
I mean, you have to understandthat we live in a oppressive society
where people are not meant to.
(04:16):
Those that control thesociety, the type of society we live
in now, do not want everyoneto live up to their full potential.
Even if that's the lip servicethat we're given, even if that's
what's advertised to us,that's just not a reality.
But even still, if you want tolearn how to do taxes and things
of that nature, there's a lotof algebra and arithmetic that's
involved within that.
(04:38):
So that's foundational, youknow, to those things.
So I just want people tounderstand that and become more aggressive
and assertive and feel a senseof urgency around developing their
children to be strong math students.
Because once you're a strongmath Student.
You know, it's similar to theconversations around stem.
Like, there are a lot ofconversations around, how do we increase
(05:00):
the number of black studentsthat are in STEM going to STEM disciplines?
Well, if they're strong mathstudents, then that becomes an option
for so many of our young people.
STEM is not even an option.
Being an engineer is not an option.
Being a doctor is not an option.
Being a registered nurse,being an architect, a computer scientist,
they don't even see that as anoption because they stay away from
(05:20):
the math.
Math is the gatekeeper.
And I think that the samething can be said with finance and
with financial literacy.
I mean, and even things thatwe might, like, you and I might take
for granted at times, even aperson understanding the concept
of negative numbers, which isa concept that's unfortunately.
And I say unfortunatelybecause I think it's introduced too
(05:41):
late.
It's introduced in algebra 1.
But I think when childrenfirst learn to count, they should
learn the negative side of thenumber line.
Like, if so if I teach mychild how to count from 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, I should alsoteach them where 0 is as a boundary
and teach them how to countfrom negative 1, negative 2, negative
3, negative 4, negative 5,negative 6, negative 7.
(06:02):
I think we should all.
We should do thatsimultaneously so they don't have
to wait until they get toalgebra 1 to be introduced to that
concept of negative numbers.
How does this relate financially?
There are people that do notrealize that there is a tangible
difference between having $0in your checking account and having
a negative $200 balance inyour checking account.
(06:24):
Because to them, they may say,well, either way, I can't take any
money out.
So it's the same.
It's an equivalency.
It's not an equivalency because.
And these are the same peoplethat will get upset if they don't
understand that concept.
You know, they get.
They may get upset if theysay, okay, well, I just deposited
$400 into my account.
How come I can't withdraw $400?
Well, because you had anegative $200 balance.
(06:46):
So that has to be coveredfirst to get to.
We don't go from, you know,negative 200 plus 400 does not equal
400.
Negative 200 plus 400 equals 200.
So that's why you only have$200 available.
But these are very, like,fundamental things, you know, but
this is.
This is a mathematical issuemore than it being a financial literacy
issue.
(07:07):
So I'm just like, I'm a heavyadvocate of People just like learning,
learning math because otherwise.
And we've seen, like,especially during the pandemic, I
think there was a huge, youknow, increase in conversation around
financial literacy, which canbe a good thing.
But if the same people thatare very motivated and enthusiastic
(07:29):
about embracing financialliteracy also are the same people
that are walking aroundsaying, I'm never going to use Y
equals mx plus B in life.
I don't need to know how to calculate.
Use this form of theexponential functions.
An exponential function iscompound interest.
That's what an exponentialfunction is.
They don't know the connectionbetween that.
Then it's like, okay,apparently you must just want to
(07:53):
listen to other people talk toyou about how much money they made
or how other people tell.
Tell you stories about howthey were able to, you know, budget
and do things like that.
And you think somehow throughosmosis, you're just going to be
able to just pick that upwithout having to actually roll your
sleeves up and do some actualcalculations of your own.
So I don't, I don't.
(08:13):
And I like, yeah, I just, Iwonder about that.
Like, okay, you want to gointo real estate, cool.
But you don't reallyunderstand percentages.
So how are you going tocalculate your roi?
How are you going to calculate anything?
You know, so I'm just very bigon, like, the mathematics being the
foundation of.
And not just with financialliteracy, but a lot of things.
(08:35):
You know, mathematics is sofoundational to so many areas of
our lives.
But we also have to keep inmind the fact that, again, we live
in a very exploitative society.
So it actually benefitscertain entities, certain people
for us to be ignorant ofcertain things so that they can actually
make money.
They have a financialincentive on their part to keep us
(09:00):
ignorant so that they can makemore profit based on our ignorance,
because our ignorance is very profitable.
And a lot of us make poordecisions because of the ignorance
we make.
And then somebody has toeither come clean it up or somebody
profits off of that from usmaking that decision, that poor decision
in the first place.
And I think a lot, I mean,some of it can be attributed to a
lack of discipline.
(09:20):
I get that.
Just like even myself, like, Iknow a lot of math, but I still make
bad choices sometimes justbecause of a lack of discipline.
It's not because I didn't knowany better.
I knew better.
I just didn't want to do.
I just didn't want to dobetter at that moment.
Right.
But at least I did know better.
There's some people that don'teven know better.
So even if they do have thediscipline, they're still going to
(09:40):
do the wrong thing.
It's something that isdetrimental to themselves.
So, yeah, I want for anybodywatching this to think about the
fact that the math has to bethe foundation and we have to become
aggressive as parents withbecoming the primary educators of
our children in terms of math.
So while we're having theseconversations about, you know, being
(10:02):
financially responsible, beingfiscally responsible, those could
be mathematics lessons, thosecould be algebra lessons, you know,
and I, and I think too, one thing.
One thing, having that understanding.
Now, one thing I was justgoing to add, I was going to say
this one thing, and I want to,I want to let you jump in, is we
have to make a decision as a community.
(10:23):
And even if it's not acommunal decision and within individual
households, we have to decideas parents, do we want to keep our
financial business private andpersonal from our children or do
we want to expose them to it?
Because it can be a verytangible and rich teachable moment.
(10:47):
Because I thought about thatyears ago because I said, wow, you
know what, there's so manyopportunities we have to.
Children can have to developfinancial literacy just with the
bills that come into thehousehold every single month, but
yet we have a culture of stayoutta grown folks business, right?
(11:09):
So if your financial decisionmaking in your household is seen
as grown folks business, thenthe children never learn.
And then when they becomeadults, it's like, well, what am
I supposed to do?
Like, I never, I didn't growup, you know, practice with these
practices, right?
So I think we have to make adecision or like I said, as a community,
or at least within individualhouseholds, should we, okay, when
(11:31):
you sit down at the kitchentable or the dining room table to
do your bills every month, todo your, the budgeting and your finances
every month, do you have yourkids with you?
Because if you have your kidswith you, they can be calculating,
oh, well, this, oh.
Cause this I figure out howmuch I should pay on my credit card
or this is how we, you know,figure out how much we're gonna pay
on the, on the electric billor the gas bill or the water bill
or okay, the rent's due.
(11:51):
Okay.
You know, and how do I, how doI know, you know, how much I should
allocate to this or to that,you know what I mean?
Because I think that'ssomething that doesn't get discussed
enough.
But it is like, it's adecision that has to be made because
it's a lot.
I Think there's an opportunitythat a lot of us as parents, we may
(12:12):
miss out on because of that.
Yeah.
And I was wondering about,first off, commend you on doing all
of this work because like yousay, you don't know what the future
is going to hold for you basedon the discipline that you decide
to choose, especially asyou're going in through education,
because mathematics, yes, itopens up the world for you.
(12:34):
An engineer might look ateverything as an engineer point of
view, but I think math islooking at it like, hey, you're actually
like an ore for, like an orefor like a, I don't know, like a
steel or like you can becomeanything you want.
But you know, if you look atan engineer, they know how to make
a particular tool and oncethey make that tool, it's kind of
(12:56):
like that's all they can useit for.
So having that understandingof like where you can utilize your,
your math skills intodifferent disciplines is very important.
So when it comes tounderstanding your gift of not just
mathematics, but actuallytaking that moment to understand
what you want in life, whatwould be the first step?
(13:21):
Because you talked about theroi, how do you calculate an ROI
for something that you decidedto invest in?
So the return on investment.
So you're looking at.
Yeah, now you put me on the spot.
How do you calculate roi?
How many years?
There's a.
(13:41):
It's like percentage change.
So the value.
So what is it?
Yeah, basically it's thepercentage change formula when we
use to calculate percentagechange in a math course.
So it's new minus old dividedby old.
Basically the new.
The new value minus the oldvalue divided by the old value.
(14:02):
So it's the change.
And so this is Y equals MXplus B.
This is basically slope, right?
It's basically slope.
That's what it is.
Right.
The M and Y equals MX plus B.
So the new value minus the oldvalue, the change in value as a fraction
of the original value.
Right.
Because we're comparing it tothe original value.
Right.
(14:23):
So we talk, you know, realestate values.
You know, it could beanything, you know, the cost of something,
the cost of anything, youknow, And I think that's important
to be able to do because thenwe start to begin to function more
like producers and not only as consumers.
Right.
(14:43):
Business owners, entrepreneurs.
One of the things I advocatefor as just a daily math practice
in households is have children.
I mean, adults should, I thinkadults should do this, but I think
the children should.
All the adults should beshowing children and encouraging
children to calculate unitPrice of everything.
(15:03):
Case in point, if you get abig bag of chips, it could be Ruffles,
Doritos, whatever, whateveryou like, right?
You can calculate how manychips are in that bag and then you
can calculate the unit price,not per ounce, because the store,
the grocery store, just do itby ounce, right?
But I'm saying, like, that'snot as relevant to me.
(15:24):
I want to know how much onechip costs.
So when I eat one chip, I knowhow much I'm actually consuming on
a monetary basis.
And if you look on thenutrition information on the back
of the bag of chips, it'lltell you how many servings are in
the bag, it'll tell you howmany chips per serving.
So therefore, you can do themultiplication and figure out how
many chips on average are inthat bag approximately.
(15:48):
And then if you want to knowthe cost, you know, relative cost
of one chip, you would justcalculate the unit price.
You would take the, the totalamount of money that the bag cost.
How much did the bag maybe was.
Five bags of chips areexpensive now.
Like $6, sometimes seven bagof Doritos, like $7 now.
Ridiculous.
(16:08):
And then you divide it by thenumber of chips in the bag.
And that's a way to also talkabout the concept of division.
What division actually means,what's happening when you divide?
And then your child couldknow, okay, so when I consume this,
this is a, this is actually,you know, monetary I'm using.
I'm thinking of it in terms ofa different metric.
(16:30):
So you might even want to sayto your child, like, you know, if
they want some shit, they'regoing to the kitchen.
Like, you know, mom, dad, canI, you know, can I get some chips?
Well, and you might say, yeah,but one of the things you could do
is say, well, instead of justgetting a handful of chips or just
pouring chips into the bowlhalf haphazardly, right?
Say you can have 50 cent worthof chips, you can have 75 cent worth
(16:53):
of chips.
And they might look at you,well, how am I supposed to know that?
Calculate it, figure out howmuch, figure out how much one chip
costs.
And then, so if one chip is 5cent based on the cost of this total
bag of chips and the number ofchips in the bag, then, okay, if
you get 75 cent worth, okay,one chip is 5 cent, then again division.
(17:14):
And also it's like it'sdeveloping that number sense in a
controlled environment, in asafe environment.
Because oftentimes schoolenvironments are not safe.
You know, we're not in aposition to feel Vulnerable enough
to actually be open enough to learn.
A lot of times, oftentimes youhave teachers that are not trained
as well as they need to be inorder to deliver instruction in a
(17:36):
way where students can reallyunderstand it and internalize it.
But you figure that out, yousay, okay, well, if it's 5 cent for
one chip, it's gonna be 10cent for two chips.
Two chips is 10 cent.
Now, you might sit there, thechild might sit there and just count
up all the way to 75.
Or they might realize, wait aminute, what if I use this tool called
division, and I did 75 dividedby 5?
(18:01):
And then I figure that out andI say, oh, okay, that's 15.
So that means I can get 15 chips.
Now, somebody might belistening to this saying, man, ain't
nobody about to do all that.
That's crazy.
That's tedious.
Nobody's about to count.
No child's about to count out15 chips.
But what if you tell them todo it, right?
You tell them to do it, andit's a practice and with the goal
(18:24):
of them developing theirmathematical fluency and mathematical
understanding so that they canultimately be a better critical thinker.
Because I think that's anotherissue we have in our community in
terms of not knowing what thevalue of mathematics really is.
Like, what's the value ofknowing mathematics?
We often equate it to, youknow, in a capitalist sense.
(18:46):
Well, what type of job can I get?
So then if you say, well, if Idon't want to be an architect or
I don't want to be anengineer, that means I don't need
to know math.
But then you're missing out onthe opportunity just to be a better
problem solver.
Right?
Just a better problem solver,a better critical thinker.
Mathematics, to me, is a classwhere you actually get to sit in
(19:06):
class and practice critical thinking.
Yes.
Every day you're justpracticing critical thinking.
Solving word problems, solvingequations, you know, thinking about,
simplifying expressions.
That's.
That's.
Those are exercises incritical thinking, which is a transferable
skill to any area or facet of life.
And unfortunately, it's not.
(19:29):
Math is not marketed that way.
It was never marketed to methat way.
Or if it was, maybe I justwasn't paying attention.
I didn't get it right.
If a teacher.
If a math teacher did tell me that.
But if they did, it wasn'tenough of them.
Not enough of them did that.
But it really is that.
It really is that.
But we often just.
It becomes something that wewant to evade and avoid, and it becomes
(19:52):
like a necessary evil.
Even a lot of students likemyself that excelled in math, we
never really bought into it.
We didn't have a love for itbecause we just saw it as a, you
saw it as a necessary evil.
A lot of us, and we justwanted to get the good grades, but
we didn't really want tounderstand the math.
And I think that is anotherissue because then you start to,
(20:12):
or you develop this habit ofonly focusing on algorithms, memorizing
algorithms, memorizing thesteps without any real understanding
of the concepts that areembedded within the math problems
or within the algorithms thatyou're using.
And then you end up not beingable to really apply the algebra
or the geometry or the precalculus concepts in other areas
(20:35):
of life.
And we also have to considerthat there are people that do have
deep understanding of maththat are able to apply it in other
areas of life.
Which brings me to this pointreal quick.
I want to say a lot of peopleoften will say, well, why do I need
to know this?
When am I ever going to use this?
I think that we need to beless concerned with when we may use
it and more concerned with thepeople that are learning it and when
(20:58):
they're going to use it andwhat they are using it for.
Because ultimately they'reusing math.
I totally agree with that.
Yeah, they're using math tocreate algorithms and systems that
are going to affect all of ourlives and always have affected all
of our lives.
Because we have to askourselves this question.
The person that gets thebachelor's degree in pure mathematics,
(21:20):
pure or applied mathematics,the master's degree in pure or applied
mathematics, the PhD in pureor applied mathematics, what is that
person doing?
They're probably going into,they might go into private industry,
they're working for acorporation, they may work for Google,
they may work for Facebook,they may work for, well, meta, you
know, working for Facebook orInstagram, developing algorithms
(21:41):
that are going to develop andinfluence our own personal tastes
and the things that we like.
So they're creating algorithmsthat are meant to control our lives
while we think that, thatwe're making choices of our own.
Like a lot of us when we go onYouTube or a streaming app, they're
telling us what we like.
Oftentimes we don't even thinkabout what type of music we like
(22:03):
anymore because they just tellus to us or they predict, okay, well
if you like this, then youprobably like this.
Well, maybe I wouldn't like that.
But your algorithm that somemathematician created is Telling
me what I like.
So my point is that we need tostart thinking more about.
More of us need to startthinking not, not so much about that
I may not use something, butwhat the people that are using it,
(22:26):
what are they doing with it?
Because when we say, well, Idon't need to know this, but then
there's some people that areembracing it and realize that they
need to know and they want toknow it.
We're setting ourselves up forasymmetrical warfare because a lot
of times math is weaponizedagainst the population, and then
(22:47):
you end up saying, well, I didn't.
I don't need to know calculus.
But then the person that knowscalculus is creating systems that
are, that are affecting yourlife every day.
So then now you show up tothe, to the, to the gunfight, thinking
you about the box, and thenyou get shot and you die.
That's, that's really what happens.
It's like when people, it'slike when people say, I'm not into
politics.
I don't get into all that.
(23:08):
Well, politics is into you.
Because political politiciansmake policy that affects your life,
that affects the economics ofyour community that you know, and
that affects whether you mayhave a job, you know, that affects
this factory or this companyis going to be able to function here.
What if they're going torelocate and then you don't have
a job.
But all along you talkingabout, well, you, you don't.
(23:30):
Politics don't got nothing todo with your life.
Politics has everything to dowith your life.
Politics determines whetherthis plant may open up and it may
affect whether you have cleandrinking water.
That's all political.
Everything is political.
So the same way people areconditioned to think that politics
is irrelevant except forelectoral politics.
(23:52):
So every four years I gottavote for a president.
Every two years I might votefor a congressman or whatever.
They do the same thing.
We do the same thing withmathematics a lot.
We think, well, the math is irrelevant.
It's not going to affect my life.
Well, there are people thatall learn the math that are making
decisions just likepoliticians are, that are affecting
your life every day.
So it just makes sense to meto understand the tool that they're
(24:12):
using to affect your life.
And I think that's somethingthat as parents, we got to start
thinking about and we got tostart having these conversations
with our children early onbecause the children, just like as
adults, a lot of us havetapped out and don't want to affiliate
with math because of a lot ofreasons, sometimes negative experiences
in classrooms Growing up, ourchildren are tapping out too, and
(24:33):
we got to keep them engaged.
Because when the children saymath is boring, math is too difficult,
and then they say math isirrelevant and I don't need it, I'll
be fine without it.
They're basically, they'recooked at that point.
I mean, they can be reverted,right, with the proper guidance after
(24:56):
that point.
But if they don't get thatpropaganda, it's their cook.
Because now what you said iswith mathematics being the gatekeeper
for so many opportunities, letalone the critical thinking ability,
it will develop, but just jobopportunities and career opportunities
now, you're never going tobecome the physician, you're never
going to become the registerednurse, the computer scientist.
You never, you probably won'tbe able to go into finance fields,
(25:18):
accounting.
You need those math skills.
So then what happens is youeither like graduate from high school,
maybe you don't even go tocollege, or if you do go to college,
when it's time to choose amajor, what do you do?
Oh, let me pick, let me findthe major that requires the least
amount of math coursework.
I've heard that conversation.
So I could just stay away fromthe math.
(25:39):
And then all the while, thepeople that have been trained to
embrace the math and runtowards it, they're more comfortable
because they have lesscompetition, because a lot of the
would be competition hasdisqualified themselves.
And then, you know, a lot ofpeople that create the environment
for that, where people willdisqualify themselves, they get plausible
(26:01):
deniability because then theysay, oh, well, we didn't tell these
black kids that they couldn'tbe engineers.
We didn't tell these blackkids they couldn't be doctors.
We didn't tell these blackkids they couldn't be physicists,
quantum physicists, and, and,you know, you know, architects.
We didn't tell them that.
No, but what you did was youconveniently and in a very insidious
(26:23):
way created an environmentwhere they would fear math and stay
away from math, knowing thatmath is the gatekeeper toward those
opportunities.
So that's what you did.
Right?
Which, and the solution tothat is, for me, we have to develop
parents to become moreaggressive with becoming the primary
educators for their children.
(26:44):
Because then thoseenvironments that are created to
make our children scared ofmath and run away from it, they become
less relevant.
Because now, well, you know,you, you don't have as much power
in my household, because in myhousehold, okay, we're talking about,
we're having mathematicalconversations every day.
And then, you know, and thenthat like we said earlier, then my
child is going to be morefinancially liberate and less likely
(27:06):
to be taken advantage of.
And they may not ever need touse credit repair.
They may not ever need to, youknow, repair some mistakes that they
made when they were in theirearly 20s or when they first went
to college and got their firstcredit card.
Because as a young child, theyhad math skills that then lended
themselves to them beingfinancially literate, you know.
(27:30):
Yeah.
So that's a lot to unpack there.
Especially because of the useof mathematics and the tying of it
to the politics side of the house.
We have to kind of think aboutwhat is the importance of how we
live in our lives going forward.
(27:51):
Your TV is actually reallyloud, dude.
Not sure.
I think that's my.
My mom is on the phone.
Hold on, hold on one second.
(28:17):
All right, cool.
Yeah, it was just the feedback.
I wasn't sure.
So now that we kind of got tothis point, now that, you know, understand
the importance of having theparents involved and being active
again.
And the reason why I say againis because, you know, with technology
(28:38):
and AI is actually enforcingpeople to actually do more with less
now, now that the parentsmight be able to go, might be home
a little later or sooner, theycan actually provide some different
type of activities for their child.
So looking into the future,how is AI really going to impact
and how to bridge that gap ofeducation with their children?
(29:04):
I think if it's used as a tool.
Right.
And not as a replacement forhuman thinking, then AI can be healthy.
It can be a healthy tool.
Right.
To assist with developingcritical thinking ability.
My concern is that a lot ofpeople, especially people that have
bought into this notion thatmath is irrelevant and that effort
(29:24):
should not be dedicated towardlearning it, they're going to allow
AI to do the work for them,which is going to lead us to just
becoming dumber, because thenwe're not going to learn how to do
the things.
We're not going to have the practice.
Right.
I mean, the same could beapplied to calculators.
Right.
But then you got to know how to.
(29:46):
You have to have somemathematical aptitude, though, or
else there's going to beoperator error.
Right.
Similar.
Similar with AI.
But I think what has to happenis we.
We have to use it as a.
Just that, as a tool.
It's gotta be a tool.
It can't be a replacement forour brains.
It can't be.
(30:06):
Even though it's.
It's touted as being veryconvenient, you know, and.
And it is.
It's convenient.
It, you know, it's helpful at times.
But I think what has to happenis we got to think about the long
term effects of that convenience.
Because when you get so usedto just allowing a computer program
to do the work for you, thenwhen do you practice doing the work
(30:28):
and when you don't practicedoing the work, then how do you learn
how to do the work?
How are you able to do it?
Your brain atrophies.
Similar to when we have abroken bone.
We have a broken bone, youhave a cast on, then what happens
to that muscle?
It's not being utilized.
And then when the cast comesoff, it's very flabby and it's, you
(30:51):
know, it's, it's underdeveloped.
Right.
Because it hasn't been used.
And then you end up forgettingsaying, man, how do I do that?
You know?
So we have to be very carefulwith AI, right?
I think very careful.
And we have to be, we have touse it responsibly.
Just like how they say weplease drink responsibly, please
gamble responsibly.
I don't know what that means.
(31:11):
Gamble responsibly.
Like, I don't know how youtake like an addictive behavior and
tell somebody to like beresponsible with an addictive behavior.
I don't know.
At least for me, like, and I'ma per.
I have an addictive personality.
So I'm like, some things, likebeing responsible, it just means
not doing it.
You know what I'm saying?
Like for some of us, maybethere's some people that can handle
that, but for some of us it'slike, nah, man, I mean, that seems
(31:35):
like a oxymoron.
Like, to be responsible meansI just gotta abstain.
I just, I just can't, I justcan't do it, you know?
So we gotta think about, theseare things we gotta think about.
And these are someconversations that have to be had
in the community or at leastin individual households.
Yeah.
When it usually comes togambling responsibility, responsible.
I'm sure they mean like, hey,like, know your limits.
(31:59):
Like, you're not gonna go overthe amount that you don't mind losing.
Same thing with drinking.
If you're going to have adrink, one drink.
If you're going to gamble, domaybe one or two slides.
That's it.
Not meaning, hey, one drink,meaning the whole bottle of wine,
but one glass or one cup.
And so I get what they mean bydoing it responsibly.
(32:21):
It's like speeding like that.
Some people are just chronicspeeders just kind of like, look,
slow it down a little bit, youknow, moderate, actually.
You shouldn't be speeding.
But the same thing.
I think one of the things thatcame through years ago when I was
in the vegan community, theywas like, either you all in or you're
not.
And one of the things, I thinkI was cooking something and I utilized
(32:42):
egg.
And it was like they kind of gave.
They ran me through the ringer.
Either you full vegan oryou're not.
And I was like, okay, yeah, right.
So I'm vegetarian.
That's where I left it at.
I was like, okay, lesson learned.
But it was just some nasty people.
And they was like, either youin it or you're not.
And I was like, I get it.
You can't be.
There is no transition period.
(33:02):
You just gotta cut it.
Yeah, I get it.
I get it.
Yeah.
No, no leather clothes, noanimal products whatsoever.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a commitment.
Yeah, it's a.
It's a major commitment.
So going back to, like yousaid, with the parents, they gotta
have that commitment to reallywanna educate their children and
really do the best that they can.
So with the future, we talkedabout utilizing AI so it's a parent.
(33:26):
We just got to make sure that they.
Well, just make sure that theykind of continuously pour into their
children or educate themselves first.
Like putting a mask on firstbefore you start teaching your children.
Is that kind of the best wayto go?
Yes.
Yes.
And I think we have toreorient ourselves to the purpose
of school.
Like, what is school for?
I think for a very long time,we have been conditioned to completely
(33:50):
outsource education to public,charter and private schools.
Whereas we see, and I saywe've been conditioned this way.
So this is not an attack onparents, but it's a recognition that
this is how we were taught.
And I think it's a form ofmiseducation that we've all received,
myself included.
Right.
Where we see good parenting asfinding the best school for our child.
(34:14):
Right.
The best school outside thehousehold for our child.
Right.
Once I do that, I'm done.
Right.
I've done my part.
I'm gonna send them to you.
You teaching the algebra, youteach me the calculus, you teach
me the trigonometry.
What we have to realize isthat most schools are not equipped
for true education.
(34:35):
Most schools are test prep centers.
And if we understand anythingabout test prep, ACT prep, SAT prep,
standardized test prep, we.
We understand that with testprep, that's mostly about teaching
children strategies to be Ableto answer the greatest amount of
questions correctly andeffectively within the time allotted
(34:56):
on the actual test.
It's really not aboutproviding fundamental understanding
of, like, SAT Prep.
There's algebra one on sat.
There's geometry on satisfaction.
SAT prep is not for teachingalgebra one.
It's not for teaching geometry.
When you come to SAT Prep,you're supposed to already have a
(35:16):
solid foundation in algebraand geometry.
Whereas when we see these SATquestions, we're focusing on understanding
the word problem, being ableto decode the messaging within it.
That's what SAT Prep is for schools.
In large part, I'll speak formathematics specifically.
The math class is really for that.
So then the question becomes,where's the child gonna get the fundamental
(35:40):
mathematical training if theydon't get it in school?
Where else are they gonna get it?
They gotta get it in the household.
So as a community, there hasto be a huge paradigm shift, and
we have to begin to say, youknow what?
I'm gonna be the primaryeducator for my child so that when
they go to school, they'reready for the test prep.
And then the test reallybecomes irrelevant, because now it's
easy because they have a solidfoundation, which they get at home.
(36:03):
But then people in thecommunity, such as myself, have to
create resources, which iswhat I.
Which is what.
One of the main things I dowith all this math is create resources
for the parents.
Because it's easy to tell aparent, well, you got to be the primary
education, right?
That's how.
And then the parent willrespond to that and say, oh, here's
something else.
Now I got to do this.
Now you're telling mesomething else.
I got to do something else I'mdoing wrong, right?
You got to create resources.
(36:24):
You got to help.
You got to help to facilitate that.
So this is why I created myYouTube channel.
This is why I add content tomy YouTube channel, the all this
Math YouTube channel.
And we.
And we have over a thousandvideos now.
Nice.
Last time I was on here, wedefinitely didn't have that many
videos, but.
But yeah, we.
We just eclipsed 1,000 videos.
Congrats.
(36:44):
We have eight.
I appreciate you.
I appreciate you.
We have 8,000 subscribers.
So there's content on there, right?
Where my audience on theYouTube channel is youth students,
right, that want to kind ofget better understanding, but also
parents.
Parents that want to betterunderstand the way math is being
taught today so that they canhelp their children.
Also teachers, early careerteachers, even veteran teachers that
(37:07):
may want to get a.
Another method of teachingsomething, you know, that they may
have not seen before or maybethey haven't taught it in, like 10
years, you know, so they'relike, you know, because math is like
a use it or lose it type.
Type subject, right?
So.
So this is why the resourcesare available.
And speaking of.
And in terms of parents aswell, my book, how to use all this
(37:27):
math, Volume one.
My book, Volume two is coming.
I just gotta buckle down anddiscipline myself and actually write
it.
But volume one is a.
Is a resource guide where Itake different examples of everyday
activities and show how thoseactivities can double as arithmetic
lessons, algebra lessons,geometry lessons.
(37:48):
So I'm trying to create asituation where you don't have to
alter your regular daily lifethat much and still help your child.
Teach your child certain mathskills and have them practice them
on a regular basis.
Like, earlier we talked aboutfinding unit price.
The unit price.
How much is one chip in this bag?
(38:08):
How much is one cookie in this package?
How much is one piece of candyin this, you know, bag of M&MS.
Or whatever candy your child likes?
Have them calculate that.
And when you.
And it's about the repetition.
What is.
What does the brother say?
The brother named.
The brother named MarcusKlein, who runs Freedom Home Academy
out in Chicago, does good work.
(38:30):
Independent school.
You know, I've been followingthis brother for years.
I commend him on his efforts.
He always talks about with hisstudents, repetition duration and
frequency.
That's what we have to do inour households, right?
Got to do that in a household.
Because we can't always.
That's not always taking placein the schools.
But we.
We should be able to controlwhat happens in our households.
So the children need thatrepetition, the duration and the
(38:53):
frequency so that they candevelop those skills.
And like, in this brother,like, if you go on Facebook, you'll
see him posting videos withhim teaching algebra one concepts
to his second and thirdgraders, which can be done.
It's not outlandish.
I taught abstract algebra tothird graders, so.
Exactly.
Too easy.
(39:14):
You know, we can.
The expectations are too lowfor our children.
And a lot of that comes to alot of these low expectations we
have in mathematics.
Because I'm sure people will cringe.
You say, oh, teaching algebra,the second graders, a lot of that,
that initial, like, triggeredresponse that a lot of adults would
have from hearing that comesfrom them projecting their own personal
insecurities and their ownfear of mathematics, saying, well,
(39:38):
how can they be able to do that?
You can't do that.
Like, no, because I didn't do that.
I was in ninth grade and 10thgrade, and I didn't understand.
I was one.
Well, there probably were someinstructional practices that weren't
suitable to you, but you could have.
It can be taught much earlierthan what.
And that's another thing forparents to keep in mind.
We don't.
The curriculum and the gradelevels that certain topics are taught
(40:02):
at.
That is a suggestion.
That is an opinion of peoplethat make education policy, people
that you'll probably nevermeet and probably will never meet
you and probably don'tunderstand or don't care about the
needs of your children andtheir future.
So that's another reason whywe as parents have to say, you know
what?
I have to make some different decisions.
So if you're telling me whenmy child is in the fifth grade they
(40:26):
should be doing this, youshould stop and think, well, why
can't they do what the 8thgraders are doing?
Why can't they do what 9thgraders are doing?
A lot of these, you know,these curricula and the grade levels,
it's all arbitrary.
So that's just a suggestion.
So we gotta.
We gotta keep that in mind.
We gotta keep that in mindtoo, because, you know, we want to.
(40:49):
We want our children to, youknow, be exposed to as much math
as possible.
Right?
We can't keep running awayfrom the math.
We got to run towards it.
That's the key.
They say, what is the book called?
Eat the Frog.
You gotta do the hard stuffearly because they got more time
to really dive into to that.
Because as we getting older,we need those hard things to become
(41:12):
second nature.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that's another way to create.
I'm glad you brought that up.
That's another way to createtime by exposing children to complex
topics at an earlier age.
Because at an early age you got.
Because you got time to mess up.
Like, you know, you know, myson is six.
He's in first grade.
You know, Baltimore CityPublic Schools has their curriculum,
(41:34):
and that's fine.
But I know what I'm doing withthem, right?
So I may do.
I'm doing some more advancedthings with them, right?
And if he doesn't get it atfirst, that's cool.
Cause we got time, you know,we got.
We got time to mess up.
But if you just wait, andhere's a trap that a lot of parents
fall into.
They'll allow the schooldistrict to do their thing.
And then at the last minute,they're like, okay, now I gotta help
(41:56):
you with this.
So now we gotta cram.
If we have to cram, there'sGonna be stress if there's stress.
It's difficult to teach andlearn in a stressful environment.
Man.
Seem like we can just talk forhours and hours on this master.
Because I enjoy this topic.
Yeah.
(42:17):
So because I had you on theshow before, I always still ask these
final four questions.
Is there anything you want tosay before we dive into these final
four?
Make sure you, you like andsubscribe the all this math YouTube
channel.
Make sure you do that.
You know, go over to Amazon,get a copy of the book how to Use
(42:38):
all this Math, Volume one byKil Parker.
And you know, as a parent,give yourself grease and realize
that even if you didn't have apositive experience growing up in
school, in math classes, thatmay not have been your fault, number
(42:59):
one.
Number two, you're older now,so, and you've lived life so the
mathematics that you didn'tunderstand when you were 12 or 9,
right?
Like those word problems thatwere about, you know, adult situations
like buying groceries, youknow, driving a car across the country
and, you know, trying tocalculate different things, that
(43:23):
was irrelevant to you becauseit was beyond the scope of your experience.
But now you've had those experiences.
So now the math, like we haveto understand math is also a language.
So it's really just a means of.
In one way you could think ofit as a way to articulate our lived
experiences, but as a childyou haven't had those lived experiences.
(43:43):
So it's even more challengingto learn math, certain types of math
at certain young ages tolearn, depending upon how it's presented.
Right.
If you haven't had theexperience, you know, so, so yeah,
so get, you know, give, giveyourself self grace and you know,
try, try it again now.
Plus also your frontal lobewasn't fully developed when you were
(44:05):
a child, so that also makes itdifficult to understand things.
All right, so you ready forthe front of the fork?
Yes.
Foreign.
So the final four questions,for those of you who are new to the
(44:26):
show, these questions are justkind of wrap up questions to end
the show.
Out with the bang.
You get to learn a little bitmore about the guests and how they
actually view money.
So question one, what doeswealth mean to you?
Wealth.
Wealth means to me.
(44:48):
Well, a lot of things, but onething that comes to mind is not having
to be stressed about expenses.
Almost taking for granted thatyour bills will be paid and your
needs will be met.
Your financial needs will be met.
(45:12):
Number two, what was yourworst money mistake?
Worst money mistake?
Not saving.
Not.
Not becoming committed tosaving at a saving and Investing
at an earlier age.
(45:32):
Yeah.
Buying and.
And instead being morecommitted to buying depreciable assets
or liabilities.
Yeah.
Number three, is there a bookthat inspired your journey or changed
your perspective?
(45:53):
Definitely.
But if I had to narrow it downto one.
So one of the many books Iwould say is.
I would say AssataAutobiography of Assata Shakur, and
(46:17):
Rest in Peace to her.
The reason I bring that up isbecause her political analysis, and
just as many of Those in the1970s, like during the Black Power
movement, influenced me tothink about money differently, to
think about wealthdifferently, to think about our economic
(46:37):
systems differently.
And again, to my point earlierabout financial literacy, while it
is very important, I hope thatit leads us to conversations on economic
literacy and us even thinkingabout and starting to question, like,
well, why do we have to existin this kind of economic system?
(47:00):
If you think about the factthat so much of financial literacy
is learning how to playdefense and protect yourself from
being exploited.
So with that in mind, then thequestion should be, why do we exist
within an economic systemwhere we're constantly trying to
protect ourselves from being exploited?
(47:21):
Why not have an economicsystem where exploitation is not
the norm and whereexploitation is not incentivized?
Because if so many companiesare making billions and billions
of dollars off of thefinancial exploitation of people,
people that do not havefinancial literacy, then why do we
have to exist within that typeof system?
(47:42):
You know, and I understandthat's aspirational, but I think
that, you know, everything.
Any change always starts withan aspiration, you know, So I would
say, like, you know, asada was def.
That was that concept.
And that topic was one of thethings that she talked about in her
autobiography.
Got it.
All right.
And number four, what is yourfavorite dish to make?
(48:06):
Favorite dish to make.
I don't cook as much as I.
As I should, but.
And I don't make veryelaborate meals.
Um, I gotta say, I don't know.
Something basic.
Spaghetti.
Yeah, Spaghetti.
(48:27):
Sugar.
Do you do sugar in yours orkeep it sugar?
Nah.
Okay.
Nah, nah, nah, nah.
I don't do sugar.
I don't.
And I don't.
I don't add ketchup, you know,to it.
I don't.
You know, I know people thatdo that too.
Like.
Nah, what am I more of a.
More of a purist or like, spaghetti?
Purist.
Purist.
I'm a purist.
(48:49):
Nice.
Well, I mean, this is the verylast question of the show, which
is, where could people findout more about you?
Yes.
So my website, allthismath.com is actually being revamped
as we speak.
It should be.
The updated website should be,you know, available next week.
But the current, as of now,the current website is still still
(49:10):
available, so.
Www.allthismaf.com all also onsocial media, YouTube, the YouTube
channel.
Please like and subscribe and share.
Share with people, Share withthe community.
I want everybody to know about it.
You know, I want people to beable to go and get the help that
they need.
You know, I want, I wantchildren to see that black people
do math, right?
So if they never had a blackmath teacher or never had a black
(49:32):
teacher, they can see abrother like me, you know, up at
the board doing math problems,they can see that they can be exposed
to that.
That does a lot, you know, forthem psychologically.
It did a lot for me in schoolwhen I had black male teachers.
So on YouTube and also you'regonna get some black history lessons
mixed in with the math videos,math content as well.
(49:54):
Also on Instagram, TikTok,Facebook, all this math.
You can, you know, feel freeto reach out and please do, please
do, you know.
Yeah.
Awesome.
All right.
Thank youk for coming through.
Really sharing that knowledgeand really bringing in the importance
(50:14):
of what a parent can do withtheir child and actually really kind
of change the dynamic in thatconversation around the everyday
household regarding math ineveryday life and how that they can
actually branch out todifferent avenues.
I forgot to say one thing.
I'm sorry to interrupt.
Can I say one, one last thing?
You just reminded me of something.
That's cool.
(50:35):
One of the things I recommendto parents, especially at the beginning
of the school year, this is aperfect time for this.
So this is September, right?
Whatever grade your child isin, right?
Find out.
Go online or go to.
Either go to the school or goonline and look up sample questions
from the standardized testthat the MAV standardized test that
(50:58):
they will be taking in May atthe end of the school year.
Print it out.
Print out those samplequestions or save it, you know, to
your hard drive or whateveryou gotta do or go to the school
and get a copy.
This is the 2025, 2026 school year.
So there may be samplequestions from 24, 25.
If not, 23, 24, maybe.
Should definitely be available.
But print out those questions.
(51:20):
Look at those questions.
As a parent, become familiarwith those questions.
And if you do not know how todo those questions, then that is
an assignment for you.
I want for all parents,regardless of what grade your child
is in, find out whatstandardized math test they will
be taking from state to state.
If it's Maryland, it's the mcat.
If it's Pennsylvania, it'seither the PSSA or the Keystone Algebra
(51:43):
one.
If they're in high school,Every state or, you know, even D.C.
has, D.C. has, I think, thePARCC test, I think.
But every state has their own test.
But print, because that's agood barometer and a measuring stick
for what your child isexpected to know to be considered
a proficient math student.
So you, as the parent, youmake sure you can do those problems.
(52:07):
And if you're wondering, well,why do I got to do those problems?
I'm not in school.
Because if you can do thoseproblems, that means you can help
your child to understand howto do those problems.
That's the key.
And also it'll kind of, youknow, allow you to develop some empathy
for your children, too.
Because when the news mediacomes out at the end, you know, the
(52:28):
end of every summer when thetest grades are released and they
talk about how low the testgrades are and how so many students
were, you know, below basicand only, you know, 1% of students
are performing proficient orwhatever, we automatically assume,
like, man, these kids are dumb.
Like, they can barely do math.
Like, nah, the kids aren't dumb.
(52:48):
They're not well trained andthey're not motivated, many of them.
But also, these tests are not easy.
But a lot of parents havenever seen the test or the type of
questions that are on the test.
A lot of teachers in the sameschool buildings with college degrees
would also fail these tests.
A lot of those principals andvice principals would fail these
(53:10):
tests.
A lot of the guidancecounselors would fail these tests.
Right?
Those same adults that kind ofhave this very condescending attitude
about the students.
And because they.
Because they fit.
The failure is so widespread.
So I think a lot of us need tobecome more exposed to the type of
content that is on thesetests, because it's not.
(53:30):
They're not straightforwardmath problems.
There are a lot of wordproblems, right, which require understanding
of various levels of mathematics.
Right.
But as a parent, you want toknow what your child is up against.
So beginning of the year, thisis a perfect time.
Go online, find the sampletest questions from the state standardized
(53:53):
test that your child will beexpected to take in May of the following
year, of May of.
At the end of the May of thatschool year.
So familiarize yourself with it.
Find out a way to understand it.
And if you have time on yourside, you might say, okay, well,
let's.
Let's let's focus on thesethree or four types of problems per
month, or four or five typesof problems per month, right?
(54:16):
And then by the time Maycomes, right?
Because you don't know what'sgoing on in the school.
Ideally, the school would havesome type of plan for test prep to
prepare them for this test.
But oftentimes it doesn'thappen, you know, or oftentimes there
are too many learning gapswhere what's being offered in the
school is not beneficial tothe child because of those learning
(54:37):
gaps.
You know, it's like, you know,we talked, like I mentioned spaghetti
earlier.
Like, if I'm trying to teachsomebody how to, you know, make spaghetti,
but they don't know how toboil pasta, like, that's the problem,
bro.
You gotta learn how to boil pasta.
Then come back, you know,like, what are you doing?
You know, there are learning gaps.
There's too many learninggaps, right?
Cause you're not at the.
(54:58):
At the level to really gain,to really be able to use for this
to be useful, right?
So.
But.
But parents, in terms of beingmore conscientious, in terms of taking
more ownership of theirchild's education, get that standardized
test, print it out.
Get a previous standardizedtest, print it out, become familiar
with it, you know, read theproblems, see for yourself how difficult
(55:19):
it is.
See for yourself why.
So you.
Then you'll know, like, why you.
Why some of your kids just puttheir pencil down or, well, they're
all online now.
While some of your kids just.
Just pick anything and justkeep pushing the buttons, just going
through and without eventhinking about it, not even thinking
about what the question sayingor even reading them, because they
get academic fatigue, right?
Familiarize yourself with itso you can be.
Have.
Having awareness.
(55:43):
All right, with that, we justgoing to wrap up the show.
Thank you.
All right, everybody, y' allbe out.
Peace.
Peace.
Sam.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.