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An Apologist Winsome and Sure: Caroline Ong’s “Math is Beautiful High Horse” Example

August 9, 2022 By Dave Stuart Jr. Leave a Comment

My favorite method for cultivating Value in the hearts of your students for the work of your discipline is called “An Apologist Winsome and Sure.”

That's a weird title — purposefully so — so let me briefly explain what I mean.

An apologist is someone who makes a case for something that's controversial. But this summer, I learned a bit more about the roots of the word. It has two parts:

  • Appo — meaning “out from, out of”
  • Logos — meaning “reason, meaning, order, speech”

A teacher who is an apologist, then, is someone from whom words about the meaning and reason of what you do in your class flow out.

I picture a fountain that's ever bubbling with water, the nourishing stuff of life.

architecture clean dark fountain
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
  • The ELA teacher who is an apologist for English language arts is like a bubbling brook; he's always nonchalantly crafting these “positive micro moments” (language our ELA colleague David Reese created) in which the class gets to marvel at the wonders of language.
  • The personal finance teacher who is an apologist for personal finance is like a bubbling brook; she's always going off on micro-tangents of how cool and neat and useful and meaningful personal finance can be.
  • The math teacher who is an apologist for mathematics is like a bubbling brook; she's reliably springing forth with the reason, meaning, beauty, and order of math.

And speaking of math, let's close with a brief video example of what I'm talking about. This comes from Caroline Ong, a mathematics teacher based in Texas.

Not seeing a video? Click here.

We'll use this video again as we deepen our grasp of this “An Apologist Winsome and Sure” strategy. But for now, let's agree on a couple things:

  • She's giving reasons for mathematics (from point 1:20 in the video until the end) — in other words, she's giving an appo-logos, an apologetic;
  • These reasons are flowing out of her in a way that exudes her enjoyment of what she's speaking about — this is winsome — and her confidence in it — this is sure.

I want you to do two things with this:

  • Go have a ball briefly ranting at times about how beautiful and lovely and powerful and cool your discipline is.
  • Do this as often as you can. You want it to be normal for your students to see An Apologist Winsome and Sure — not the exception, but instead the rule.

More to come.

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