By Doug O’Roark
•
January 17, 2024
To achieve our mission and live our values — for the children participating in Math Circles programs — our students must feel safe. We recognize that different children face different challenges to their safety — whether to their health, to their economic security or mobility, or to their social & emotional well-being. Right now, the challenges are particularly severe for some of the children we serve. The history of our modern and interconnected world means that events far away affect people in Chicago, and our students are no exception. Chicago is home to the largest Palestinian American population in the country, and the third largest number of Jewish Americans. The violence in Israel and Gaza — and the deaths of thousands of people, including Palestinian and Israeli children — affects people around the world, including in our own community. We know that some families are mourning and we offer our respects to the loss of life. Our families also face growing polarization and violence directed at people based on their race, religion, nationality, or other aspects of their identity (including in the Chicago area). The work of learning and unlearning is hard in an increasingly polarized world. Part of the joy and beauty of studying mathematics is to apply logic, thoughtfulness, and collaboration to create a better world collectively. These new challenges to our students’ safety — and their ability to learn and grow as we aspire to support them — means it’s even more important to the Math Circles community to ensure all our children feel safe: because we care about them, because we owe it to them and to their families, and because without safety, we can’t help them become critical thinkers and realize their power. Our desire to create safety and well-meaning in our learning spaces with the communities is ongoing and in dialogue with the communities we serve. This semester, we intend to do the following and will continue to improve our efforts to cultivate spaces of joy and safety at any math circle sessions our students attend: Work to equip our teachers to respond to concerns and questions that may be raised by our children, and to equip them to address incidents of bias appropriately. Support our teachers in their own concerns. Work to equip our teachers in supporting students’ social and emotional health, Work to empower our students to have conversations about how math can further the cause of social justice. As Sara Rezvi, program director of MC2 notes, all children, regardless of race, class, religion, or any other forms of difference, have a right to dignity, safety, and learning in joyful math spaces. Joyful spaces cannot be authentically created without actively and courageously combating racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, anti-Muslim hatred, antisemitism, and other forms of oppression that continue to exist in mathematical spaces, especially towards members of those groups who have been the most marginalized and sidelined. Doug O’Roark, Executive Director Sara Rezvi, Program Director Co-Signed by Ameerah Sanders, Communications Michelle Harton, Operations Manager Jocelyn Wilcox, Project Lead Paul J. Karafiol, Board Chair
