Unlocking Potential: Math as a Tool for Empowerment

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Join us as we welcome Akil Parker, a passionate trailblazer in math education who is transforming how we perceive and engage with mathematics. Akil's journey from a high school math teacher to founding All This Math is both inspiring and informative, and he’s on a mission to make math accessible and meaningful for the Black community. Through innovative platforms like YouTube, Akil is blending math education with Black history, offering a fresh perspective that challenges stereotypes and empowers learners. His insights into the importance of parental involvement and community support in breaking down educational barriers are essential for any parent or educator committed to fostering success in math and beyond.

As we delve into the pervasive issue of math anxiety, Akil provides a roadmap for overcoming this common hurdle. He shares how fear and avoidance of math can limit career opportunities, especially in STEM fields, and highlights the systemic factors that perpetuate these fears. Rather than simply offering advice, Akil emphasizes equipping parents and guardians with tangible resources to help their children thrive in mathematics. His dedication to addressing historical and systemic educational inequalities is a powerful call to action for all of us to question and reimagine the structures that uphold power imbalances. This conversation is a compelling exploration of how mathematical literacy is intertwined with economic empowerment and social justice.

The episode also reflects on the evolving nature of math education, from its critical role in developing problem-solving skills to its broader applications in daily life. Through personal anecdotes, Akil highlights generational shifts in math education and the importance of adapting teaching methods to meet the needs of future generations. We explore the challenges parents face today in nurturing resilience and critical thinking in a world dominated by technology. Akil's thought-provoking discussion underscores the vital role of parents as primary educators and advocates for a collective effort to transform math into a tool for empowerment and lifelong learning. This episode is a rich tapestry of insights, stories, and practical advice that promises to reshape how we approach math education and community empowerment.

Parents are the Bows and Children are the Arrows they will land wherever we aim them eventually!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Thank you.
Outro Music.
I just heard that.
Hey everybody, welcome back toParenting with a Purpose.

(01:32):
I am your host, donna Janelle,and.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I'm your co-host, Pamela, and today we have a
special guest.
His name is Akil Parker.
He's going to give us a littledetails about himself, starting
off a little background what hedoes for a living.
You go ahead and bust that out.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yes.
So first of all, thank you forinviting me out here so we can
have this very importantconversation about mathematics
and education and how parentscan become more involved in
their children's education.
My name is Akil Parker.
As you said, I'm a black manthat is trying to play his part
in the black community and teachmath to our people, to overall

(02:14):
improve the relationship betweenmathematics and the black
community, because math is suchan important tool that we often
are kind of convinced from avery early age that is either
too difficult or irrelevant anda lot of us kind of run away
from it and stay away from it asa result, because we buy into
that propaganda, that negativepropaganda about it, and I want

(02:37):
better for our people.
So that's why I do the workthat I do through my company.
All this math, um, that's why Ido the work that I do through
my company.
All this, all this math and allthis math.
We started in like 2017 after Ihad been teaching since 2005.
I've been a high school mathteacher since 2005.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
And, um, yeah, so you know, I decided to become more
official and I started a mathtutor, the math tutoring
business, and then that grewinto like educational consulting
work and teacher coaching anddeveloping resources, and I
ended up writing a book, youknow, which is another resource
for parents called how to UseAll this Math, volume One.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
OK.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Where I take everyday activities and just show, like
you know, how parents can usethat as a way to, you know,
prepare their children for mathclass.
Basically, you know, because alot of children that's another
reason children don't do as wellin school and math because they
go in cold, right, they're notprepared already.
They get, you know, overwhelmedby a lot of new topics and new

(03:34):
math vocabulary and this andthat, and you know so.
So, yeah, so you know we also,you know, produce resources and
and also we have a YouTubechannel too.
You know the All this MathYouTube channel that you know I
hope everybody you know tapsinto and subscribes to and uses
on a regular basis, becausethere's no other YouTube channel
like it.
You know, there's no otherYouTube channel where you're
going to find a black man veryproficient teaching math and

(03:59):
also you get black historylessons in the videos too.
So in the beginning I mighthave like a Malcolm X hoodie
hoodie on, you know, and then Imight talk about malcolm x a
little for the first 60 secondsand then, and then we, then we
start solving equations, youknow, or simplifying exponent
expressions or something likethat you know.
So you get both at the sametime, like you know.
So, um, I'm just trying to justhelp our people win, you know,

(04:22):
through, through math Wow,that's good.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
That was a mouthful.
I'm going to say that again.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
That was a mouthful.
That was a mouthful.
That was excellent.
That was a mouthful.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
I see that you did this.
I did it again, so I have aquestion Kale.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
So what made you venture off into all this math?
What prompted that?
What triggered that?
What made you say you know what?
I need to do something besidesjust teaching this here in the
school, in this educationalsetting, but taking the
educational setting outside ofthe four walls.
What made you, what was it?

Speaker 3 (04:57):
so it was kind of like a natural progression
because as a math teacher andI'm sure all math teachers can
attest to this you end end upkind of like you have a natural
side hustle as a math tutor.
anyway, Because, people alwayscome ask you can you help my
child with this, can you help mychild with that?
And if you have time, you kindof just do it.
But I decided I wanted tobecome more formal with it.

(05:18):
But, more to your point, it wasa natural progression.
But at the same time I realizedthat I wanted to reach more
students and I also learned that, you know, just kind of just
watching education and how itwas changing like back in like
2017 and 2018.
And I kind of like the thingsthat are happening right now, I
seen it coming Like.

(05:39):
I seen I seen things going inthis direction, you know.
So I was trying to get out infront of it and I wanted to
reach more people.
So I realized that, you know,with tutoring, you know I could
kind of like control my schedule, control my time, um, still use
my skill set and help people,and you know.
And also, you know I've also,in addition to the tutoring,

(05:59):
like we also, you know, teach inlike homeschool collectives.
So if there's like a group ofpeople that are like
homeschooling their children,they want to like hire a math
teacher, you know.
So I've done that, that type ofwork as well, you know and work
with some some online programs,some online homeschool programs
, where I've been the mathteacher for that there as well.
But yeah, I really just wantedto expand my reach, right, cuz
like, when I left the SchoolDistrict of Philadelphia in 2018

(06:23):
, I was teaching at Overbrook atthe time, over in West Philly,
and you know, I had like fivesections, like maybe two
sections of Algebra 1 and likethree sections of Geometry and,
matter of fact, no, like twosections of Geometry.
I think I had like a statssection too, with some seniors,
but it was like, I don't know,that might have been no more
than like 100 students.
So I was like affecting 100students At least, I don't know

(06:45):
that might have been no morethan like 100 students.
So I was like affecting 100students.
Um, at least I hoped I wasaffecting 100 students, um, but
you know, on the internet now,it's like, you know, you could
literally reach millions, right,you know?
So I'm like, and it's the same,I got the same skills.
You know that I can and I canteach the same way in the same
topics, you know, and I don'tgot to worry about, like you
know, know, classroomdisruptions.
You know, when I'm in my houserecording, recording my video

(07:06):
content.
That's the same quality that Iwould provide when I was in the
classroom.
You know, I could just go, Icould just flow and just do my
thing and if a student doesn'tunderstand, like in real time,
they can't pause me and rewindme Right On my YouTube channel.
you can pause me and rewind me,like whenever you want to you

(07:28):
know, so yeah, to answer yourquestion, like I just wanted to
expand my reach and just reachmore people and you know, I felt
confined in the classroom and Icouldn't really move how I
really, you know, wanted to move.
So, yeah, so that's kind of whywhy, like, I decided to build
all this man felt because, like,when I first started it, I

(07:48):
didn't really know what my, what, my, what my goals really were
for it.
I just knew I'm, like, you know, it just started out just as
like a humble little tutoringbusiness and then it kind of
just grew and one you knowthings, one thing led to another
, and then I was like, well, Icould do this and I could do
that, and I could do this and Icould do that.
And then these people need this, these people need that, and
people start reaching out to me.
And that's the point I'm at nowwhere, like you know, whereas

(08:11):
before I was really aggressivelyreaching out to a lot of people
and I still reach out to people, right, but now people are
finding out about me and likereaching out, so it's like it's
coming back now you know.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
so I'm at that stage.
So yeah, do you see, now thatyou're in this sector of it
versus being in the actualschool district or anything, do
you see an increase in parentalinvolvement or kind of the same?

Speaker 3 (08:36):
I think it's about the same, which is unfortunate,
which is why another reason I dothe work that I do because one
of the things I want to do is,like you know, come on platforms
like this and like talk toparents about you know, first of
all, you know, remind them thatthey should be more involved,
but not only that, like provideresources and like have
different conversations aboutparental involvement, because I

(08:56):
realize that a lot of theconversations about parental
involvement, especially in theblack community, it's kind of
like a finger overall, like afinger wagon type of thing.
It can be very condescendingand even me, if somebody's
telling me what I should do, ifyou don't tell me in a certain
way, even if I know I should doit, I might not like how you're

(09:17):
talking to me.
If I don't like how you'retalking to me, then I'm not
going to do it.
So I try to like have differentconversations around parental
involvement and have it in adifferent way and also provide
resources, because it's easy forme to say to somebody like
because you know I'm a person Itaught math for 20 years and I
teach math on a college leveland from kindergarten through

(09:38):
12th grade for the most part.
I was really strong in math.
I had some rough patch, but Iwas really strong in math, so
it's easy for me to say likey'all should be doing this,
y'all should be doing that, butyou got to provide the resources
.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, that part.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
So back to the YouTube channel.
I'm like look, I want mothersand fathers and grandmothers and
grandfathers and uncles andaunties and everybody to be able
to help children with theirhomework when they get home,
whenever they see him.
But you need to know how to dothe homework first that part as
an adult.
You got to know how to do it,because it can't be the blind
leading the blind.
So that's why I make the videocontent on the YouTube channel,
so you can just say, all right,I'm going to go to this YouTube
channel.
You know, I like how thisbrother talk, or whatever he

(10:17):
explains, he makes it make sense, and then I can help you with
your, your homework, you know.
And now at this point we gotlike over 800 videos, ranging
from ranging from arithmetic upto calculus, and we bought the.
We pushing, we pushing, like 6000 subscribers.
We're about to hit 6 000 whatdo you think um?

Speaker 1 (10:38):
why do you think parents have fear with math?

Speaker 3 (10:40):
oh, because when they were children, they had fear
with math.
That's what I think for both,for a lot of people like, and
the thing is, it's like you,like you know I want to be very
clear about that too Like it's avery systemic thing, right,
it's very systemic.
Like we're programmed to fearmath, we're programmed to hate
math, we're programmed to try tostay away from math.
And I believe that is two mainreasons why that is Number one

(11:04):
if the moment that you say as aperson, even as a child, math is
too hard, math is too difficult, math is irrelevant, you've
also said, without realizing it,that I'm not going into a STEM
field, I'm not going to be adoctor, I'm not going to be an
engineer, I'm not going to be acomputer scientist, because math

(11:26):
is the gatekeeper for all ofthose professions.
So, as soon as you can, so ifyou got to also think about how
America is structured.
It's a capitalist system.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
It's a dog eat dog world.
Everybody can't win.
In this system, everybody can'twin.
I know a lot of times we actlike everybody can win, but
that's unrealistic.
In Everybody can't win.
I know a lot of times we actlike everybody can win, but
that's unrealistic.
In this circuit, this currentsystem, everybody can't win.
There's got to be a lot oflosers and a few people winning
at the top.
That's how the system is set up, right.
So, in order for those thatwant to continue to win, they

(11:57):
want to have less competitionand they want to have a
competitive advantage.
So, for the people that have,you know, certain amounts of
resources and whatnot, if theysay, like you know what, well, I
want my child to be ananesthesiologist when they grow
up, ok, there's a certain amountof opportunities, a certain
amount of anesthesiologists thatwill be able to work in the
United States.
So then, but if you have, like,literally millions of black

(12:24):
children that are like, knowwhat, math is too hard, but math
is the gatekeeper, those aremillions of children that those
people that have plans for theirchildren to be
anesthesiologists do not have tocompete with right, right they
like math is too hard, so like,no, I don't gotta worry about
y'all.
So every time your child says,like math is too hard, why I
gotta do this, what's the point?
When am I ever going to use thisin life?
You're actually disqualifyingyourself from competition and a

(12:46):
lot of parents actually becauseI think, because a lot of
parents had their own negativeexperiences with schooling and
with math classes they feel likethey're protecting their child
from that, the hurt that theyexperience, because they feel
triggered, I think sometimes.
So they kind of a lot ofparents kind of pass on this,
like this math anxiety, to theirchildren.

(13:07):
And a lot of parents don'treally recognize when they do
that because, like, when yourchild comes home with the
homework and then they say, well, mom, can you help me with this
?
Dad, can you help me with this?
Like, and then you kind of likedon't act very like aggressive
or assertive or like confident,they notice that they read your
body language, they, they read,they read everything, they read

(13:28):
that what you're communicatingto them.
So then it kind of makes themfeel like, well, damn, like, my
mom don't do this, my dad don'tdo this, why should I be doing
this?
Right?

Speaker 1 (13:36):
I want to backtrack something.
Um, when you said that thesystem is set up, um, like the
parents, the reason why parentshave fear, because that's
something that they had inchildhood can you explain that a
little bit more of how thesystem is set up for us?
Not to like math, um, and I'mthinking that, if I'm thinking
what you're thinking, you'rethinking even if we go back to

(13:57):
like slavery and all that, um,in regards to math, can you
elaborate on how you, how youfeel the system is set up for us
now?

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, you know, like I said, this is monopoly
capitalism.
That's the economic system weexist within, that's the
political system, that's thesocial system.
It's about scarcity andartificial scarcity because,
it's really enough for everybodyto have plenty, but you got
people that have access toresources and hoard the
resources to make it seem likeit's not enough for everybody.

(14:28):
It's plenty, right, but theycontrol the resources.
So it's like there's this mythand this idea and this image
that it's not enough foreverybody, even back in, like
you mentioned, like duringchattel slavery, right,
oftentimes, you know, we learnabout Frederick Douglass and,
like you know, reading and how,like you know, it was how it was
illegal to teach an enslavedAfrican to read and everything,
but I'm certain that we weren'tallowed to be able to do

(14:51):
mathematics either.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Because math is just as important.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Because math is a language in and of itself.
When you think about fastforward after the Civil War,
when sharecropping becomes athing which is just another
iteration of chattel slavery.
Right, a lot of our ancestorsare getting taken advantage of
because the landowner is likewell, no, you owe me this much,
you really owe me that much.
So then it's like you'reperpetually in bondage, like
year after year after year.
But if that black man, thatblack woman don't know

(15:19):
understand those formulas thatthat man is presenting to them,
then they have no choice but tojust say, oh, ok.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
And it can be changing every time Exactly.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
Right, so you keep people illiterate, not only
illiterate of the Englishlanguage, but illiterate to the
language of mathematics, right?
Like, even when you talk aboutI could veer off a little bit
and even talk about how you knowrappers or athletes that Well,
let's say rappers, becausepeople always talk about how the
rappers sign deals and theydidn't know what they were

(15:48):
signing.
They didn't read the contract.
It's not really a, it's areading issue, but it's a
mathematical issue, because alla contract is is a long math
word problem.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Right Any contract you sign.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
If there's money involved, there's an equation,
there's some formula, there'spercentages.
If you don't understand thelanguage of mathematics, you're
going to get taken advantage of,absolutely Right.
So this is all systemic.
So when people say things likeschool should teach this and
school should teach that, itkind of says to me that they
don't really understand wherethey are.

(16:19):
They don't understand whatAmerica really is, because it's
like something Assata Shakursaid like and I'm like
paraphrasing what she said butlike you know, your oppressor is
never going to give you thetools to become free or to take
to remove them from power, right?
So you know all these positivethings, like you know providing,

(16:39):
like you know, not justfinancial literacy to children,
but economic literacy, right,because A lot of the financial
literacy that our children needare like defense mechanisms so
they can protect themselves frombeing taken advantage of in
this economic system.
But if we got to do all this toprotect ourselves and be on the
defensive all the time,somebody should stand up and say
well, wait a minute, what's upwith this system?

(17:01):
Why do we live in a systemwhere I constantly got to
protect myself from being takenadvantage of by a store owner or
a car dealer or somebody tryingto rent me a house or rent an
apartment like why is?
Why is this system set up likethat?
Maybe we need to have a largerconversation about moving into a
different system, right, but ofcourse they don't want that
neither right but, if you startasking because then you're

(17:22):
asking too many questions right,then you become
a problem, right, but it goesback to having mathematical
understanding, because with themathematical understanding this
is my other point and beyond,not just not being able to
compete for STEM jobs and STEMcareers there's the issue of
problem solving and criticalthinking.
The thing a lot of young peopledon't understand and even, like

(17:45):
a lot of teachers, I think,don't understand or some
teachers understand it but don'tverbalize it explicitly to
students which is that you know,one of the things you're doing
when you're doing a math problemor any math problem, is you're
developing your criticalthinking ability.
You're developing your problemsolving ability and like because
kids would be like man, I ain'tnever going to be in a grocery
store.
I have to use the Pythagoreantheorem, or quadratic formula.

(18:08):
That's what they say Right, haveto use the pythagorean theorem
or quadratic formula.
That's what they say right.
But they don't know becausethey're looking at only at the
surface level.
Right deeper within that, whenyou're sitting in a classroom in
the ninth grade, 10th grade,whatever, and you don't, you're
using a quadratic formula.
You're using pythagoreantheorem to figure something out
to solve a problem.
You're training your brain howto solve problems exactly and
that could be transferred to anysituation you're gonna be.

(18:29):
you're're going to be in asituation with your girlfriend,
your boyfriend, your husband,your wife, your supervisor at
your job, somebody in traffic,somebody trying to get over on
you, right.
Whatever you need to knowproblem solving.
Problem solving is problemsolving.
If you could do it in analgebra two class or geometry
class, you could do it in yourpersonal life and a lot of
people we notice they haveproblems because they don't know

(18:50):
how to solve problems right, sowhat?
Happens when you can't solve aproblem it persists it persists
and then it grows.
It's like it's like a toothache.
You got a toothache, you don'tdo nothing about it.
Your tooth gonna get worse,then it's gonna start rotting.
Then you have to get it pulledout.
Then you get an infection, thenyou might have nerve damage.
It just gets worse and worseand worse.
But because we never learn howto solve problems.
So the math class is the classwhere you really get to learn

(19:14):
how to solve problems.
But I don't think nobody isreally saying that to children.
Ain't nobody saying that, nobodythinking about it like that
Because we get so caught up inthe X's and the Y's and the Z's
and everything, and the thing is, again, it's again, it's also.
It's about competition.
So a lot of people just sitback and be like all right, all
y'all sitting up here talkingabout this is this is useless,

(19:35):
cool, all right, y'all not goingto be able to compete with us.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's the more we get to count out.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
It's interesting that you said that, because I had
this conversation with my son.
He's 16 and he was saying youknow, he doesn't really like.
He can do math really well, hejust doesn't like it.
And he was like I don'tunderstand why I'm not going to
use this when I'm adult.
I was like you're 16.
You don't even know what you'regoing to use when you're adult.
Right, right, that too Like.
I tried to tell him like bro,like you're only 16.
You got a whole life to live.

(20:04):
I'm a nurse by trade, so I'mlike we use algebra, we use all
this stuff that you say that youdon't think that you need when
you're.
He was like, yeah, but I'm notgoing to be a nurse and doctor.
I said but even just when youtalk about critical thinking and
problem solving and that's whatI said to him I said, even
everyday life, when you thinkabout problem solving, you got
to be able to maneuver, movesomething in this place to that
place, to that, and bring it alltogether.

(20:26):
You got to be able to thinkabout it.
And he was like, yeah, but likewhy can't they just say five
plus five?
I'm like because that's theeasiest way, that's the simplest
way, but don't you want to knowmore?
Why does this equal this?
Because growing up, you knowwell, we're not my age, but uh,
I don't know how about you akil,but growing up, oh yeah, we
same age then so growing up inschool, they never taught us why

(20:47):
certain things, why were they?
they just like five plus fiveequal five, and they always make
it seem like it's only one waythat it equals.
Uh, that right, they didn't showyou the different ways and if
you thought outside of the box,they told you your paper was
wrong.
Like you get dinged for notdoing it the way they wanted you
to do it.
At least what I recall inschool if I did a math problem a
different way but I got theright answer, they told me it

(21:09):
was still wrong because I didn'tdo it the way that they they
said it needs to be done and Iused to think that that's crazy,
like if it's still equal in thesame thing, it's multiple ways
to skin cat like.
But even growing up theyweren't accepting all those
different ways, so they neverreally explained to us math.
Really.
They just say this is it andthis is what we said.
Now we have this generationwhere math is getting explained

(21:30):
in all different types of waysand I think that's why parents
are scared and nervous and haveso much fear is because as a
child we didn't get that unlessyou searched and did something
different yeah the school systemwas not giving you that.
And then a lot of our parentswere illiterate, like just the
way that they grew up, like alot of didn't.
You know, my mom didn'tgraduate from high school.
I remember teaching my mom howto even read the Daily Times.

(21:52):
Now, you know I'm reading theInquirer, but I'm teaching her
how to read the Daily Times.
So just certain things likethat, and it becomes so fearful
and I don't even know how tohelp my child because I don't
know how, unless you went tocollege, right, unless you went
to college and I've learned somuch in college than I did the

(22:14):
whole 12 years of going toschool, wow.
And I thought that that wasreally crazy, because even in
college they're explaining toyou why this is and I'm like
this is what I used to try to dowhen I was younger and I was
told I was wrong.
So then when I went to collegeand started doing math in
college, I tried to do it theold way and they're like no,
there's another way.
I'm like no, that's wrong.
I'm telling the professor helike what you talk about that's

(22:35):
not what they said when I arguewith them, but in reality it's
like I I knew it was somethingdifferent, but because the way
that the educational system wasstructured it shut me down of
thinking outside of their box.
Yeah, yeah, and I think that'swhat happens with a lot of
people.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah, I definitely think.
Like you know, people need moreoptions Like the quote unquote,
new math or the common coremath.
It provides different optionsfor like how to solve problems.
You know and and and and,exercising different options.
It helps you to gain a betteroverall understanding of math
generally because you start tosee the connections, like
there's no better feeling thanlike well, there are some better

(23:13):
feelings, but it's a very goodfeeling when you can solve a
problem one way, get one answer.
Solve a problem another way,get the same answer.
Solve a problem another way,get the same answer.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
I would agree.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
And then you see the consistency.
That's when you start to getinto the beauty of math.
That's where you start to getinto the beauty of math.
That's where you start toreally like math, really love it
.
A lot of people are good at mathand don't really love it.
That's another issue too,because for some people it's
just like a necessary evil.
It's just like a class you wantto take, you got to take it.
So it's like oh, it's mathclass, All right, I'm good at

(23:48):
this too, because I didn't saythis earlier, I don't think it's
mandatory for our children togo into STEM, but I think it's
mandatory for it to be an option, Because for so many of us it's
not even an option For so manyof our children so many people
go to.
I mean, I had peers when I wentto college, Like they went to
college not knowing what theywanted to major in.
So how'd they pick a major?

(24:08):
They said, uh, give me themajor where I gotta take either
no math or at least the amountof math yeah yeah, that's what
I'm a major, right?
so many people do that like andthese people might have, might
have been excellent physicians,might have been excellent
registered nurses, excellentcomputer scientists, architects,
computer engineers, all thosethose fields, and those may

(24:29):
never have majors where you gotto go up to calculus three, like
differential equations orsomething like that, but because
of their, their feelings aboutmath and their experiences with
math, they disqualify themselvesfrom it.
Right, and, like I said, Idon't think it's accidental.
And one thing that compoundsthe problem is these smartphones
, because now, what children canalso say and adults say the
same thing is why I gotta knowwhat I could just ask, or I

(24:52):
could ask alexa when I'm in myhouse, or I could just google it
like bro the the thing is, thecomputer is supposed to be a
tool that's controlled by thehuman being right, say that
again.
The computer is supposed to be atool that's controlled by the
human being.
We're putting ourselves,willingly and happily putting

(25:12):
ourselves in a position to becontrolled by the computer.
Right, the computers are takingover our lives.
We're supposed to control thecomputer, right?
People say, oh, you can chat,gpt that, or you can, like, you
know, go on one of these appswhere you can just take a
picture of the problem and it'lllike photo math or something
like that, and it'll like giveyou step by step, but you're not
learning it Right, you're notlearning how to do it Right, and

(25:35):
you're putting yourself at themercy of technology.
Right, and I think that weshould actually you should, we
should want to know how to dostuff Right.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
You should just want to know how to do stuff Right.
Shouldn't be happy, almost likea dead brain?

Speaker 1 (25:48):
yeah, we should be, we shouldn't be happy to be dumb
like we're coming ourselvesdown wait, remember that thing
just happened with the airlinesright, and a whole system like
was down, like there was noflights or anything like that.
And I was saying I was like Iwonder if it's just because we
depended on technology so muchand once the technology shut
down, the human brain didn'tknow what to do.
Like they're so smart peoplethat first of all human brains

(26:10):
built the computers.
So you don't think that you'resmarter than a computer, which
is right To me.
This don't make sense, wow.
But I was saying to myself Isaid I bet you, if somebody just
knew what the computer knew oractivated what the computer knew
, like we wouldn't have had thatwhole billions of dollars, all
these airplanes.
Yeah, I was like somebody'sjust not using their brain

(26:34):
effectively.
And that's exactly what I said,cause I was like ain't no way
that the world could be shutdown from computers.
This doesn't make any sense tome.
I remember this is crazy CauseI'm gonna let you touch on that,
but I remember probably about10 years ago I was taking my
kids to pennsylvania up in themountains and I took them to
crystal caves, right, the um,the gyms and things like that.

(26:56):
And I had, we had the phone andthe gps was on the phone, but I
also printed out like seriouslyprinted out map quest.
But here lies the problem.
I left my papers home no, no,seriously, because I knew I was
like technology Ten years ago.
I'm like technology.

(27:17):
Look, if you're out in themountains you might not get
signals and things like that.
And something told me I printedout the whole thing but I left
it home.
So let me tell you, I'm outthere in the mountains, gps
signal's going.
I have no way.
I'm going around the circle, Isee all these horses and I see
all these cows and I literallylike five hours lost up there

(27:38):
because I did not know how toget.
And you, you didn't see people,like you're out there in the
farmland.
So what I did was I was able tocall my sister and I had my
sister pull it up and she I hadto literally tell her exactly
where I was and she actuallynavigated me through that whole
how to get back to a highway,like she.
It was the craziest thing and Isaid I the way that we depend

(28:00):
on technology is utterlyridiculous.
But I knew I needed that mapquest, but I left it home.
So you know I don't do that nomore.
Let me tell you I don't leavethat at home Like I'm printing
stuff out, do it still existLike seriously.

Speaker 3 (28:12):
That's a good question.
She said does this map stillexist?
That's a good question, it does.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Also, wade, you can print out your whole Google.
You can print all that out.
Print out your directions.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Another thing I want want to add too about that is
that you know, and people oftentalk about, like you know, these
kids these days, and these kidsare different and I think I
think kids are kids.
Um, fundamentally they're notdifferent from my, our
generation, like when we werechildren right start.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
I don't want you to feel left out.
I don't want you to feel leftout.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
It's okay, but, like a lot of stuff, we didn't have
the technology, so we had tothink.
You know, think things throughand figure stuff out.
What that does is, like, youknow, because everything is,
there's an opportunity cost foreverything, right?
So when there's more technology, there's more luxury, right,
you're still losing something.
You gain something, but you'relosing something.

(29:11):
Just like a person that, like,let's say, they had to travel to
work and they had to walk amile to the bus stop or the
train station and then take thetrain or take the bus, and then,
coming home from work, they hadto do the same thing.
So they're getting exerciseevery day, five days a week.
Then they get a car.
Now all.
Now, all of a sudden, they'renot getting exercise no more.
Right, the car is moreconvenient, it's warmer, more
comfortable.
They don't got to sit on thebus with other people.

(29:32):
They can have their alone time,listen to their music, driving
to work and from.
That's a gain, but there's alsoa loss, right.
So the question is how do youmake up for that loss?
So, hopefully so.
Then that person.
Now you, you can.
Or early in the morning beforeyou go to work, right?
Same thing with the children.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Back to that problem solving.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
That's a problem solving going on right now.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
So with the children, like you know, even like things
like I remember being young andlike I might not have had a
digital clock in my house, youonly have, might have only had
analog clocks.
So every time I'm trying totell what time it is, I'm
practicing my fivemultiplication facts.
Right, because if the long handis pointing to the six, I want
to know how many minutes it is.
I got to do six times five,right, get 30.

(30:16):
If the long hand is pointing tothe nine, I'm doing nine times
five, 45 minutes, right.
So just little things like thatthat add up that children today
don't have to do, right?
So, as parents, this is what Idefinitely want to implore and
encourage parents to do Startthinking about ways that we use
math when we were young right.

(30:37):
That our children don't have touse math today, and figure out
ways to replace that practice,because the children aren't
getting practice.
I want parents to think aboutways that in our generation,
when we were children we had touse math to figure things out,
to do things we wanted to do.
Right, like maybe no, okay, well, I know if I could be outside

(30:58):
until this time and then.
But we going over here, I gotto make sure I get home in time
because I don't want to bebeaten or whatever.
Right, I got to be home bycurfew.
We had to do math to figurethat out, right.
But our children may not haveto do that because of the
technology they have access to.
They got iPhones now, so theiPhone does all the thinking for
them.
So we have to think about howcan we replace the opportunity

(31:20):
because it is an opportunity,that's an important word being
able to practice thinking andproblem solving.
That's an opportunity thateverybody don't have.
Right, we want to create thoseopportunities for our children.
How do we create opportunitiesfor our children to think
critically and problem solve anduse mathematics?

Speaker 2 (31:38):
that we had because we had to do it right, because
we didn't have a choice right.
But now they have a choice nowright.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
So how can we create opportunities for them to to uh,
to be able to think and developthat skill set, because they
don't have the skill, becausethey don't have the
opportunities?
It's kind of like, you know,sometimes I'll be thinking about
like I'll be mad at my son, notmad at him, but I'll be like
feeling some type of way aboutlike my son because he don't
have, like you know, as much ofa go-hard attitude as I had when

(32:06):
I was his age, when I wasyounger.
But then I realized, like, bro,like, but you spoiled him.
You did that.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
He spoiled himself.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
Me and his mom spoiled him.
That's not his fault, right so,but I'm like, so how do I, right
you know, create opportunitiesfor him to develop that tenacity
and that perseverance and that,like you know, when my back is
up against the wall, I got tomake it happen, or it ain't
going to happen, that type ofattitude?
But he's never been in thatsituation because I've never

(32:34):
allowed him to be in thatsituation.
His mom has never allowed himto be in that situation, and we
did that intentionally.
So it's like that's a constantchallenge too Like how do you
balance that?
Because we want the outcome butwe don't want them to have to go
through the hardship thatbrought us to that outcome and
helped us to develop that skillset.
So it's like we all, all of uslike you know what I mean Like

(32:55):
I'm saying, like I'm giving outall this advice, but this is
something I'm dealing with, soI'm like I'm in the boat with
everybody, like we all in thisboat together.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
We're all trying to figure it out.
Yeah, that is so true, becauseI find myself often like you
know, trying to navigate andlearn, like how to not give too
much but not get enough too.
It's like a line, you know, andI see, like I've been parenting
for 25 years and I see someareas where I've given too much
and I see some areas where Ihaven't given enough.
Like I evaluate my parents andso with the younger, the 16 year

(33:23):
olds, I'm trying to do things alittle bit different, like
staying on business for somestuff too right.
But to your point, when I wasthinking about this the other
day, uh, my daughter had to signsomething right and she's
printing I was so mad, like whyare you printing and assigned?
But they never was taughtcursive writing.
Like that was taken away.
Yeah, and the crazy thing is Ifought myself for this because I

(33:45):
knew that they weren't gettingtaught that in school and I
didn't teach them at home how tocurse them.
Like I felt like that was adisservice I should have.
Once I recognized the schoolwas no longer teaching cursive
writing to students, to mychildren, I should have known
like I should have something inme, should have been like you
know what teach them how tocursive write, because they do
need this in the future.
And now that they're 16 andlike, well, my 18 year old, the

(34:07):
one that's in the marines, likeum, when she turned 16, when I
noticed it with her, I startedteaching her how to curse and
write at 16 years old and I youwould think a light bulb would
have came on for me to teach the14 year olds at that time,
since I'm like the 16 year oldmy one kid at the time.
Oh.
But now to see the 16 year old,they are just printing and and
I really kind of got upset likewhy you're not cursed.

(34:27):
But if you wasn't taughtsomething, how do you do
something if you wasn't never?
you wasn't taught and just that,just that digital thing like
because you need to learn how towrite cursive, like you need to
be able to sign something.
Yeah, everything is just notgoing to be print.
So I think even in thatinstance, like the things that
were taken away and parents knewthat they were taken away but
we didn't we wasn't maybe alert,as the young people say, woke

(34:49):
enough to realize what was goingon, and the things that we need
to kind of step in, like whenyou said the opportunity to
replace even the analog clocks,like when you think about it
like that's something.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
I don't even have any in my house.
When you said that I was likepause, I don't have none, you're
not going to play today.
I'm like I got to go buy oneJust because I remember being a
kid and my great aunt was sickand she was.
We went to visit her in thehospital and she was like what
time is it?
Right?

(35:20):
And I kept like, mind you, I'mthe one sitting on the bed with
her, we talking, I know where.
She's just like what time is it?
I'm like what time is it?
What time is it?
And I'm like I don't know whattime is it.
She's like it's a clock rightthere.
I'm like, well, if you ask me,you should be able to see it.
She said Timmy.
She called my dad.

(35:40):
Timmy, this baby don't know howto tell time.
She don't know how to tell me.
Tell you.
She lay into my dad.
She said that is your fault,it's not the school, it's not
nobody else.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
You should be making sure of that I think things
happen so fast and it slippedpast us so fast that we just I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
And he said you don't know how to tell that kind and
mind you, we're at the, the va,so they got, uh, the military
time, so it's even extra numberson there so I'm really
panicking right and now.
And now I'm going to startcrying because I feel like I got
my dad in trouble.
He's like you don't know.
I'm like, no, he's like Ididn't even know, you didn't
know.
So sometimes we don't even knowthe choices and things that our

(36:19):
kids don't even have.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
Right, and that's why that parental environment is so
important, because it's havinga conversation with them.
And it's crazy that you saidthat.
Because I'm a nurse, I taughtmy kids military time, right, I
got a chapter in my book aboutmilitary time.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
It's just just converting from from standard
time to military time, yeah, butI want to add on to something
you were saying, like you know,about how you took it upon
yourself to realize that yourchildren need to learn cursive,
like that's something that, asparents especially with and see,
here's the thing.
You know how people say there'sa silver lining to a cloud,

(36:56):
like with this new um, I guessrepublican regime that was just
elected and it's coming in, it'sgonna force us to be more
self-reliant.
It's gonna force us to be moreindependent in terms of our
moving.
We tend to be more comfortableunder Democratic leadership
because the Democratic Partykind of makes us feel all good
inside.

(37:16):
Don't worry about it.
Y'all chill out.
We got this, we're going totake care of it.
But the Republicans straighttell you nah, y'all ain't
getting nothing.
We're taking all these programs, we're taking this, we're
taking that If you, if youstarve, we don't care, you on
your own.
So against the wall so we gotto figure it out because we we
got to survive right.
So we we go into survival modenow.

(37:38):
But parents, we have toreorient ourselves to become the
primary educators yes theschool.
If you, if you send your childto a public or charter school,
even a private school, theschool has to be secondary.
That at least has to be thegoal.
Now, how what that looks likemay vary from household to
household, from community tocommunity, but that has to be at

(38:00):
least the goal for you as aparent, mother, father, uncle,
aunt, you know, grandparent,godparent, you want to be the
primary educator of that childright now.
But see this, this, and this isthe hard part once you decide
that now it's like, oh well, ifI'm the primary educator, that
means I gotta know some stuffright I can't, just, I can't

(38:21):
just make sure they get up early, they get get breakfast, maybe
they, you know, got a cleanuniform, clean iron uniform,
whatever, and they get to schoolon time.
I, I got to do more than that,yeah.
Yeah, you're going to have to domore than that.
And again, like and I don'twant to see like with this part
of the conversation, I don'twant to like blame black parents
too much because that's whatwe've all been conditioned to do

(38:43):
.
We've been conditioned to just,you know, outsource, give the
responsibility to the schools,right, and because and the
government wants us to do that,the schools want us to do that,
they want us to do that right.
So you know, the parentalinvolvement conversation is a is
a precarious conversationbecause on one hand, it's like,
yes, there should be, thereshould be parental involvement,

(39:03):
right, but it's complicatedbecause if there was the level
of parental involvement that alot of the schools and a lot of
the administrators and a lot ofthe teachers claim that they
want, a lot of theseadministrators and teachers
would be upset because thenthey'd have to really work a lot
harder.
Because if you got all thesehundreds and thousands of black
parents on your back like,listen, why you ain't update
your grade book?
I want to know what my child'sgrades is, right, she said, like

(39:25):
you ain't updated, like thelast grade that's in there was
from like two months ago.
What's going on, right?
So now you got to actually beconscientious as a teacher and
as an administrator.
Now, because you said youwanted parental involvement, so
this is what it looks like now.
So now it's like, oh, you'retalking to my child a certain
way, you're disrespecting mychild.
So now I'm at the school, nowwe got to.

(39:50):
You don't want that, you.
So it's like it's like okay,it's cool, it's like, oh, well,
you know, because a lot of timeswhat people that work in
schools will do administratorsand a lot of teachers will
complain oh look, what's reportcard conferences?
Don't nobody show up.
It was back to school night,don't nobody show up.
Right, they'll say that.
But in reality, a lot of thosepeople, they don't want people
to show up.
They just want them to show upwhen they want them to show up,
right, but you don't want to,you don't want them to show up.
But they're gonna hold youaccountable.
If they're gonna hold youaccountable as a professional

(40:11):
right, and I understand, likeyou know, that a lot of
responsibilities the teachershave, I know, I, I'm a teacher,
I get it right.
But if we, if we put childrenfirst, in the needs of the
children first, then you know, alot of us have to be honest
about the fact that we're notalways doing the most that we
can.
Even in my own career I didn'talways do the most that I could

(40:32):
at all times.
So that's you know.
We all have to beself-reflective as educators.
But you know, parentalinvolvement is key.
But for the parents we have tofirst decide that we're going to
be the primary educators andthen we can figure out what it
looks like as time progressesright on a daily basis.

(40:53):
But we first got to make thatdecision Because for so long
we've accepted that the schoolis going to be the primary
educator.
And that ties into what I saidearlier about math anxiety and,
like you know, math phobias andfears of math.
Because a lot of parents youknow they were children that
weren't properly educated inmath, so they became adults that

(41:13):
still had that experienceweren't properly educated in
math.
So then it's like time for youknow they don't really do as
much to develop math skills inthe household.
So the kids just get sent toschool not knowing much math.
They might know how to count,but they don't, you know.
I mean, why not they already?
You can teach your children themultiplication facts in the

(41:34):
house.
Yeah, you can teach them how tomultiply, divide.
You don't gotta wait for theteachers, and a lot of these
teachers are not more qualifiedthan you are.
They have a college degree, butthat doesn't mean they're more
qualified than you are right toteach your children and they're
your children.
That's another thing.
Like you have the rapport withyour children, you love your
children.
Your children trust you Right.
The home environment oftentimesis more safe.

(41:55):
It's more conducive to learningbecause it's relaxed, like
we're chilling.
This is my safe space.
School is not a safe space alot of times and school is war,
it's war.
It's war so you go to school,you got to be prepared.
You got to be prepared, you gotto be like, you got to already

(42:16):
be on point and like learning isa very vulnerable activity.
So I'm like I mean I think backto H Rat Brown, jamil Alamein,
political activist from the1960s.
He said you know, in terms oftalking about just America in
general, any institution that wedon't control can be used as a
weapon against us.
We don't control the schools.
We don't control the publicschools, the charter schools,
the private schools.
We don't control them, sothey're used as a weapon against

(42:37):
us.
So the school is often not asafe space, right, and learning
is a very vulnerable activity,right.
In order for me to learn fromyou, I got to trust you, I got

(43:02):
to be able to let my guard down.
If I'm not, I'm probably notgoing to learn from you.
Right Now, I could practice.
If I need to sit in your roomand there's something I already
know how to do and I canpractice some problems.
That's cool, but that's notreally.
Maybe middle has middle classvalues and you don't like poor
black kids and I'm poor and I'mfrom the hood and you don't.
You don't respect me and myhumanity.
I'm not going to feelcomfortable trying to learn from
you, right?
So that's why what has tohappen?
You've got to learn it in thehouse, and then the school has
to be a space for practice.
So the school, so math class,has to be like recess, in the

(43:31):
sense that the young, the youngboys, will come to school and
love recess because they get toshow off their skills, what they
learned on their block, intheir neighborhood, at their rec
, around their way, think abouthopscotch and stuff like that
that they don't do anymore sothey get to practice what they
already know.
They don't learn that in school.
Right, they're practicing.
They're practicing what theylearned on their community.
So my goal, my ambitious goal,is for us as a community, as

(43:52):
black people, to be able toteach our children, whether in
the household or in the block,in the community, wherever,
teach them all the algebra, thegeometry, the trigonometry, the
pre-calculus, the calculus.
So when they go to school, it'slike all right, yeah, ok, we'll
go to school, but we're justgoing to school to practice.
So the school is not even asrelevant.
Like it's there, it's aninstitution, but it's like nah,

(44:13):
you know, we're here forpractice, just like recess.
Like the young boys go toschool and show off.
I'm like listen, I know how toplay basketball.
No-transcript, I'm a cook,y'all Right, I just want to show
off?
I want to show off, but I didn'tlearn how to play basketball in
school.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Right, I learned it on my way.
You brought it to the school.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
So the math should be the same way.
The math needs to be the sameway, like that's got to be the
goal for like, for all of us,like, math has to be taught at
home.
And we got to have resourceslike like the oldest math
YouTube channel.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
Like, like my, my, the volume one of my how to use
all this math book series, youknow all those.
There's the plug, there's theplug for those.
But but yeah, I think I thinkthis, this has, I think this has
to happen, like it's not justin philly, not just in chester,

(45:06):
it's all over the country, right?
You hear the reports oh, 99 ofthe schools have zero students
that score proficient on themaster and did I test?
Like every year, it's the samething.
It's not working right.
Well, it's not working for us.
That's another thing I want totalk about.
The system is not broken.
I want us to be very clear.
If it was broken, it would havebeen fixed.

(45:26):
The fact that this happensevery year and on a consistent
basis means that this is part ofthe plan.
This is part of the planBecause you always, whenever
there's a problem, we have toalways look at who's benefiting
from the problem, because forevery problem that either one of
us us three here have,somebody's benefiting from their
problem.
So we always got to look atwho's benefiting, because

(45:51):
because what happens isoftentimes there'll be a problem
, that's popular right and themedia right will only focus on
the problem.
They'll never focus on who'sbenefiting from the problem
right, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
And then?

Speaker 3 (46:00):
sometimes it'll be somebody that's benefiting, some
company, corporation, entity,whatever that's benefiting from
the problem.
They'll slide up next to thevictim, the person that's
suffering, and try to make itseem like we cool.
Might be some corporation likeyou know what?
We see, what's going on in yourcommunity.
There's so much gun violenceand all this and that we're
going to donate $250,000 andstart this after school program.

(46:23):
We're going to write you agrant or whatever, whatever they
do, right.
In the meantime, on the otherend, you benefited from the
environment that leads to thefacilitation, maintains the gun
violence.
You benefited to the tune oflike maybe a billion dollars a
year.
So that 250K ain't nothing.
That's a dropping up, that's atax write off anyway, right, but
but again, critical thinking.
So I tell your son like, seestuff.

(46:45):
Like that like to be able to sitback and just peep the scene
like hmm okay.
I see what's going on but, againsitting in class doing the math
problems making sure, like okay, left side, he was the right
side.
If I do this, this is going tohappen.
You know all that.
So when you're doing math ittrains your brain to think
critically.
So you start to see stuff thateverybody else don't see, Like

(47:05):
you ever be, like just somewhere, like it could be you and like
50 other people, and it's likesomething crazy is going on.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
And you see it because your thinking is on that
level, but everybody else ischilling Like it's normal, like
y'all don't see what's going onright now.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Or like somebody will say something disrespectful but
you catch on to it and it's notbecause you're being
hypersensitive, it's becauseyou're intelligent enough to
realize they're trying to playin our face.
You catch on to it, buteverybody else don't catch on to
it.
You're the only one that catchon to it.
You know he trying to be smart,but she trying to be smart
You're the only one that catchon to it.
Because their critical thinkinglevel is not up to up to par,

(47:43):
so they don't get it.
They don't even get it.
So that's why you know, when Iadvocate for people to lock in
and tap into math, it's likemath trains you how to like
think critically so you canunderstand what's going on.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
So you're gonna understand the world around you
you know, as you were talkingearlier in that part, because
you said a lie, all this math,uh, you know what I thought
about and it's something that wekind of kind of flexed on.
But it's not really a flex likegrowing up, like you ever, or
even when you see shows withlike grandmoms and things like

(48:15):
that on there and they neverreally measured the food right,
they always was like oh, youjust put a little bit here, a
little bit there, and then whenyou question them, this baby
just do this, yeah, do that, andbe like well, my grandma ain't
never had to measure nothing, soI ain't gotta measure nothing.
Like that is really atransgenerational thing, like
we're literally passed down toour children.
It's like listen, it just needto look, look enough, or

(48:36):
whatever.
Even when you go to likemacaroni cheese, when you ask an
older person what are thedegrees to make a cake, a
macaroni?

Speaker 2 (48:41):
they'll tell you, but they won't tell you the portion
that they take.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
They don't even measure it.
And I think that that waspassed down for so long and we
kind of use it as a flex now.
My grandma ain't never had touse no measuring this or
measuring that.
They knew it.
But then that went into thenext generation and made it say
we don't even need math likethat because all we got to do is
look at some stuff.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
I think.
But see, I think, see my Nanarest in peace.
To my Nana.
She just passed away, like lastmonth, right, she was like that
too, like we're cooking andeverything.
I remember like my sistertelling this story, like my
sister was trying to make asweet potato pie for the first
time, one of my little sisters,and she called.
She was like, she called Nanaand was like Nana, how much do I
put in?
Like you know what I'm saying.
Like I don't know enough.

(49:23):
Put enough in there.
Like you know what I'm saying.
So, like, but that is a quantity, though I think even when
somebody like they, like what doyou call it?
Eyeball it.
When they got eyeballed, theystill like, they're still
quantifying it right, eventhough the quantity might not be
okay.
Exactly this, you know, put theflour in the measuring cup or

(49:44):
whatever.
You know what I'm saying.
Like they might not do it likethat, but it's like the quantity
, they just know the quantity.
And then, when you get to thepoint where you did it so much,
you can eyeball it right, butthere's still.
So I would actually say they'restill using math because
they're still quantifying it.
It's just not the type ofquantity, because you know how
people say, like in the blackcommunity.
We got our own types ofmeasurements.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Right, Like you said a heap.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
You said a heap Like how much is a heap?
How many ounces is a heap?
Or you say like yo, I'm goingto be there in a minute.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
How long is?

Speaker 3 (50:14):
that?
How long is that?
Yeah around the corner?
How far?

Speaker 1 (50:18):
is around the corner.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
You got to know, you got to just know.
And around and around thecorner in somebody's
neighborhood might be adifferent amount of this amount
of number of feet or miles insomebody else's neighborhood or
depending on who the person isor the time of day or what's
going on.
It's too complicated, so it isAll of this is mathematical
Right.
All of it is mathematical.

Speaker 1 (50:37):
I get that part.
I definitely get that part.
But it's also hard to pass itdown when you don't have the
true measurements.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
When you have kids saying I don't know maybe it's
just me.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
I'm using the measuring thing for everything.
When I was teaching my kids, Iused that as math, teaching them
cooking.
They all cook with me, so weall had every measurement out.
So you know exactly what thismeans, what that means.
But I think, when I wasthinking back, when I asked
somebody, even when they writestuff written down, the uh, the
instructions and ingredients forsomething, it's not really, I
guess, american measurement.

(51:12):
As we see, it's probably justblack measurement.
But you're saying that eventhat can be utilized, as I did
identify a quantity by bylooking.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
Okay that's definitely a quantity, it's an
amount, because you know likesomebody, because it's a like,
because somebody, because it'san identifiable amount of
something Right, even if it'snot like a recognized, like a
cup or a milliliter or somethinglike that.
It could be, you know and that'sanother thing too, like you
know, because we can and we'reallowed to have our own forms of

(51:43):
measurement.
We can do that, you know,Because, because we can and
we're allowed to have our ownforms of measurement, we can do
that, you know, because, I mean,at the end of the day, we were
the first humans on Earth anyway, you know.
So, even though because a lotof our formal education is based
on systems that are used by,you know, europeans, you know,
developed by Europeans, and it'sgood to know that, just like
the English language, it's goodto know the English language,

(52:04):
it's good to have a strongcommand in the English language.
But if you want to gettechnical, from a linguistic
standpoint, english is a trashcan language.
It's garbage, right?
It's a hodgepodge of a wholebunch of different languages all
put together.
The rules don't really make nosense.
Because why does this word, whydo you spell this word this way
and pronounce it that way, butyou spell the same another word,

(52:25):
almost the same way, with onedifferent letter, but you
pronounce it a whole differentway.
That's garbage.
It's garbage, but, but it's abut.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
It's an important tool that we should master right
, we.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
Should master it, because that's an important tool
right but it's, but it's noteven our language like a lot,
and actually you know, um, a lotof people use our ability to
the ability of black people, toutilize standard English as a
marker for intelligence, and weshouldn't do that, because any
language could be a marker forintelligence.

(52:54):
Slang in the hood is a markerfor intelligence because there's
a science to that.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
You have to know what's my song Like, just as
somebody like think about allthe variations of you good, like
just as somebody's like.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
think about all the variations of you good.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Right.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
The intonation, the inflection of the voice.
That's that's.
That's cognitive.
You have that cognitive abilityto know what some.
And that's a safety issue,because if you're somewhere
where you don't belong or you'resomewhere where you don't

(53:27):
usually be at and somebody sayyou good, you got to know you
you gotta catch on to like theirtone.
Yeah, like, are they askingabout my well-being or they are
they actually indicating thatthey about to do something to me
and try to rob me or somethingright?
intelligence is involved in thatright.
That's an intelligent thing.
So you know.
Like so, so even that, so likeum.
So I don't want our people to,you know, get mad at people or
try to, you know, condescend topeople if they don't use the
right form of the word there.

(53:48):
You know stuff like that andyou know because, at the end of
the day, like english is a,english is a trash can language.
Yeah, and it's a form ofresistance, like one of those
one things kwame tore, one of myintellectual revolutionary
heroes, said back in 1968.
He said you know, um, notspeaking standard English is
actually a form of resistance,because if you want to learn

(54:09):
English, you can learn English,it's not that hard.
But when you think about thehistory, like, okay, I take you
from your land, I take yourpeople right, transport you to
another place, I do my best tostrip you of your culture, your
religion, your spiritual systems, your family traditions.
I do my best to strip you ofyour culture, your religion,
your spiritual systems, yourfamily traditions.
I try to strip you of everything.
And I take your language and Itell you you got to speak this

(54:32):
language.
I'm like that ain't my language.
All right, maybe I need to usethis language, but I'm not going
to use it the way you want meto use it.
So it's a form of resistance,like you said.
When he said that it blew mymind, I was like damn, like yeah
, it's a form of resistance.
I think a lot of our peopledon't know that, though, and
then we kind of bought into thiswhole thing of like well, if
you talk like that, you justunintelligent.

(54:53):
I'm like I don't know aboutthat, and I also don't know that
everybody understands that it'sa form of resistance.
Right, I right, I think.
But but somewhere back in theday we understood it was a form
of resistance.
It's like a lot of things getpassed on intergenerationally

(55:13):
and we just do them.
We don't know the root reasonbehind it.
But but yeah, like, even likespeaking slang and um, you know,
uh, with different types ofvernacular, you know, it's a
form of resistance.
It's just letting, letting this, letting an oppressor know like
okay, you want, you're tryingto force me to use this language
, but I might use it, but I'mnot going to use it like exactly
the way you want me to use it,and that's why there's so many
variations, you know, to the waywe speak English.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
You know, all across the world, really, you know
that's true.
Like you get somebody come overand they're like this, ain't
even English, you know they cometo America and be like what
United States this ain't the.
English.
What are they teaching y'all?

Speaker 3 (55:45):
And it's a function of power.
That's another thing too.
So think about it.
So, those that are in power,they have decided, and decided a
long time ago, that this isgoing to be the language that is
spoken.
This is going to be thestandard language.
But if people from the blockaround the way in Chester we're
in power, then they would beable to say this is the standard

(56:07):
in English.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
There's no fixed standard.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
Standardization is a function of power.
Whoever's in power, theydetermine what the standard is
Like, what's right and what'swrong, what's seen as acceptable
, what's unacceptable.
But a lot of times when we geteducated we think oh, standard
English, it's all about standardEnglish and again, it's a tool.

(56:32):
But it's just that it's a tool.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
It's a tool, just like any language.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
Like math, math is a language, math is a tool.
Math is a language wedefinitely should learn, but
math is not a trash language,though.
It, but math is not a trashlanguage, though I was going to
say math is trash.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Y'all hear that Math is not trash.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
No, no, Math is not a trash language.
Math is very useful, verybeneficial.
Math can help us to solveproblems.
Math can help us to figurethings out and forecast and plan
for the future the short-termfuture, the long-term future,
the intermediate future.
Math can do all those thingsfor us.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
I think that's very good.
You just brought like youreally brought a good point of
how I like how you just broughtcritical thinking pretty much in
every area of life and how mathis necessary in every area of
life.
It helps you critical think andproblem solve for everything.
I think that so long like wehaven't looked at math that way.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
Yeah, even me, growing up I never looked at it
like that, not until I reallygot into it, like really like
started my company and startedlike doing more tutoring and
doing more reading and like thecontext of like studying
scholars like Amos Wilson andyou know other people Dr Bobby
Wright, you know people likeancestors like that and just
their critical analysis of theworld and whatnot.

(57:48):
And then thinking aboutmathematics and then seeing like
you know how math, how a lot ofthe principles of math and the
concepts of math very much alignthemselves with a lot of
political science concepts andpsychological concepts, and I
just be sitting there like wow,like makes sense now.
So I'm looking at itdifferently.
But man, the more I study math,I'm like yeah, they don't want

(58:12):
us to learn this.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
Yeah, we got to change our perspective towards
math.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
This could be a problem, I think this is a
conversation that has tocontinue.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
I'll come back.
There's some stuff going onhere.
Y'all got comfortable chairstoo.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
CMP Radio, the voice of Chester.
All right, all right.
So, akil, if you could justleave us with some quick
takeaways before we finish.
I mean this has been a veryengaging conversation.
I mean we're talking aboutstuff that people don't talk
about, and that's what Parent ofthe Purpose is.
Here we talk aboutuncomfortable like uncomfortable
conversations, because that's,math is not a conversation that

(58:49):
we see in a community.
We don't really talk about that.
So I'm glad that you're here toreally open up our eyes to
understand how math is not justmath, right?
it is it's not trash.
Math is not trash because weall about this math, but how
important it is in everydayliving and how important it is.
I think one of the things thatI think for me, the takeaway is,

(59:10):
and which I've been saying overand over again, is that parents
are the first educators and howimportant parents educate our
children so that when they go toschool it's practice.
I like that.
That is that new knowledge.
So can you just leave theaudience with a little couple
takeaways before we leave out ofhere?

Speaker 3 (59:27):
yeah, definitely so.
Do the do everything in yourpower to.
If you are a parent that kindof, from time to time, makes
comments such as, you know, thatspeaks to the irrelevance of
math, or, um, the the stupidityof math, or like, even when your
children come home with thehomework and it's it's different
from the way in which youlearned it years ago, you know,

(59:50):
not have that type of commentaryaround around math, because
what it does is it creates, itfurthers a narrative and it
creates an idea in the mind ofyour child that math is, in fact
, irrelevant when it's when itis very relevant, um, and that
what that does is that that,since math is a gatekeeper for
stem careers and stemprofessions, it in a way makes

(01:00:13):
it much more difficult, if notimpossible, for them to gain
access to stem careers.
So that's what's actuallyhappening, because math is the
major gatekeeper, like one ofthe things, um, the late bob
moses said in his book radicalequations.
He said that mathematicseducation is the major
gatekeeper.
Like one of the things the lateBob Moses said in his book
Radical Equations, he said thatmathematics education is the
civil rights issue of the 21stcentury, and it's kind of
something that we don't reallytalk about, right, it's kind of

(01:00:36):
hidden in plain view.
Right, roads lead to the math.
Um, definitely, make a consciousdecision to, as as you said,
like, become, become, decide tohave the desire to become the
primary educator of yourchildren.
That's easier said than done.

(01:00:56):
I understand that.
I'm not going to try toromanticize it.
It's going to require work,right, but think about the
alternative.
If you don't do that, right,think how hard that's going to
be, because that's going to haveconsequences as well.
Right, we cannot, we cannotdepend on the schools.
We can't, right, we just wejust can't.
We see that.
We see it all around, we'veseen it for years.

(01:01:17):
Right, we have to be honestwith ourselves.
So we've got to figure out waysto take more ownership over our
children's education.
Right, we have to be able to dothat and it's going to require
some work.
We're going to have to learnsome stuff.
You might have to learn some.
Learn some, some algebra andand and another thing too.
This is what this is one thingI really enjoy saying.
A lot of parents are triggeredby math homework that their

(01:01:39):
children bring home.
Cause, if your child is insixth grade and they bring home
some math homework.
And then you go back to thatplace when you was in sixth
grade and you was sitting inclass and you was about to cry
because you didn't know how todo something or your teacher
might have been mean to you.
So you're still in.
It's like object permanence,like you.
Go back to that moment, right,you like stuck in the past.
Right, think about this.

(01:01:59):
You're 30 now.
You're 40 now you.
You're 40, now You're 50.
You're smarter now.
You know more now.
You have more life experience.
Back then your frontal lobewasn't even fully developed.
You didn't even know how tofully think as well as you do
now.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
Right.
So the math that you didn'tunderstand when you was in sixth
grade, I would say that there'sa strong possibility that you
would be able to catch on to itnow.
You will be able to.
I'm confident in you.
So again, a lot of times,because we go back to that place
when we was in sixth grade,when we was in eighth grade,
right, and we just say, oh no,because I remember back then.

(01:02:37):
You're not back then, no more.
You've lived life.
You've been married, beendivorced, had boyfriends, had
girlfriends, you got some kids.
You've been grocery shopping,you've been living on your own,
traveled around the country,took trips to the Bahamas.
You did all this stuff.
All of those life experienceswill help you to understand
mathematics homework.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
That's good, all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:57):
And your frontal lobe .
Like I said, think about theneuroscience.
Your frontal lobe wasn't evenfully developed back then.
Now it is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
You science, your frontal lobe wasn't even fully
developed back then.

Speaker 3 (01:03:08):
Now it is.
You got more, okay.
Oh, let me say this tooeverybody that watches this,
make sure you subscribe to theall this math youtube channel,
the all this math youtubechannel, um, for math support.
Uh, we got over 800 videosranging from arithmetic up to
calculus.
Anything you need it's on there.
If it's not on there, it'sgoing to be on there, right?
It'll be on there, you know, atsome point, right?
I want that to be the place yougo to as a parent, aunt, uncle,

(01:03:32):
grandparent, to get tounderstand the math that you
want to help your children with,and I want your children to go
there Also.
My book how to Use All thisMath Volume 1, is available on
Amazon $34.95.
Volume 2 is behind schedule.
It was supposed to come out inSeptember, but life happens, but

(01:03:54):
it will be out.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
There's some math going on.
Huh, it's the second book inthe series.

Speaker 3 (01:03:59):
It's the second book in the series.
It's coming soon.
Yeah, all right.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
And we'll post this on our Facebook page Parenting
with a Purpose Facebook page allabout all this math and all the
resources that Akil has tooffer to parents and students to
make this thing better, makethis thing livable, make this
thing okay.
So we'll definitely share thoseresources with you guys if you
follow us on our Parenting witha Purpose Facebook page.

(01:04:25):
And yo, this was just like anamazing conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Pam, you got anything to say?
Pam, Pam, Pam.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
All Pam had done was smiling all night y'all.
She's just like yo.
This is a genius.

Speaker 2 (01:04:37):
Because I have to go back home and do a lot of things
.
You got to get an analog clockin the house.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
That's number one Anything the analog clock in the
house.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
That's number one.
Oh, that'll help, but anything,anything else, pam, you got to
say or um, no, uh.
Again, thank you, akil, fortaking the time, uh, to come on
the show to help educate us umand math, you know.
So we can get that fear,knowing that we are no longer
that kid, we are now the parent,we know more, we have more
resources and let's just tapinto them.
Um, I also wanted to say don'tforget to tap into parenting

(01:05:13):
with a purpose, because theseare the resources and
information that we are bringingto our people, for our people,
for our children that are goingsomewhere, um, and also check us
out on all platforms for ourpodcast.
We'll be back 7 pm nextThursday.
Alright, girl, it'sThanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (01:05:33):
Oh, we are on break so we'll be back.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
December the 5th, december the 5th, we'll be back
live Yep for another engagingconversation.

Speaker 1 (01:05:44):
Again, thank you guys for pointing to Parents with a
Purpose.
We really hope that youcontinue to follow us and
collect all these resources.
Collect them and use them sothat we can better our people.

Speaker 3 (01:05:54):
Yes, definitely.
Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
Yes, good, thank you.