Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Advocates to another episode of the Leading Equity Podcast. A podcast that focuses on supporting educators with the tools and resources necessary to ensure equity at their schools. Today's special guest is a repeat guest. Mister Akhil Parker is here. So without further ado, Akhil, thank you so much for joining us today.

Akil Parker [00:00:19]:
Thanks for having me on the platform.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:00:20]:
Pleasure's mine. The last time we talked, we talked about math. And this time, we're gonna be talking about math again. But this particular topic, I'm really excited for because we're gonna talk about preparation of our educators in in regards to this mathematics space. But before we get into that topic, I'd love for you to share a little bit about yourself and what you currently do.

Akil Parker [00:00:39]:
Okay. So again, my name is Akhil Parker. I'm a father of 3, 2 boys and a girl. And, I mentioned them because they influenced a lot of my educational activities. I've been a math teacher for the past 20 years. I started back in 2005 and worked in different schools in in Philadelphia, different charter schools and different high schools and different homeschool programs, homeschool collective programs rather. And I also started a company back in 2017 called All This Math, which is a it started out as a math tutoring company, but then it kinda grew into a educational service larger educational services company. We do some consulting, we do some teacher coaching, and we also made we create resources, such as the book that I wrote back in 2023 for parents as a resource guide, and also the YouTube channel that we maintain, the All This Math YouTube channel, where you can get kind of down to earth, simplified math lessons that are very, very culturally relevant.

Akil Parker [00:01:31]:
I like to say you get math lessons for all levels from arithmetic up to calculus that are infused with black history. So we're just we're just trying to remove math, the stigma around math, and let people see that math is not the monster or the bully that they should run away from, and math is actually a very viable tool that they should run towards to help them in life.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:01:51]:
Alright, man. I'm glad to hear that and that you're doing this work. I heard you say something about, like, math as being a monster and things like that. On today's education, especially in the United States, it's it's not uncommon for us to have students that'll say, oh, I'm not a math person. Me, personally, I feel that way, but then I can always go back to my algebra 9th grade year. I loved my teachers. I felt very comfortable. Algebra Friday, out of all the math that I took in high school, algebra 1 is the one that I can remember.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:02:20]:
I still feel confident that I could do it if I had to do it, had to pull it out. But I think a lot of it comes from the relationship that I have with the teacher. So I wanna start there. Like, when you hear folks that are saying or students that are saying, hey. I feel like I'm not a math person. What are your thoughts in regards to maybe that how that could relate to the teacher that was in the classroom?

Akil Parker [00:02:42]:
I think first, when we when people use terms like math person or even reading person, you know, I I tend to I like to, you know, kinda challenge that, you know, in a nice way. Because really to be a math person, you just have to be a person, and you just have to use math. And a lot a lot of us use math and don't realize we're using math. I was talking to some young students the other day, and I was like, when you make the decision as to whether you can cross the street, even if the light is green and there's a car coming and you're looking down the street, you're making a judgment call. You're using the distance rate time formula because you're judging, okay, how far away from me is that car? What approximate speed is that car traveling? And do I have enough time to get across the street safely without getting run over? So and our brain is, you know, kinda intuitively doing making these calculations and doing these types of things all the time, but we just don't realize it. And we may not see that type of problem in a in a in a math textbook in our class, and the teacher may not be able to make that connection because they not may not be thinking about that in the classroom. But everybody's a math person. Right? We may not believe it, but but I do think that there are a lot of teachers that on this kind of speaks to the the the point of the conversation today that consider themselves to not be math people, and that discomfort is very transferable to the students in their classroom.

Akil Parker [00:04:00]:
And even there are people that are maybe math teachers that are that consider themselves to be non not math people. And they they may be just in the classroom just trying to do the best they can. And, but that that kind of fear and trepidation that a lot of teachers have around math and and y equals a mix plus b, the students can kinda can sense that fear, and then they they they pick up on it. When and then you have students that are coming from households where their parents may have that fear of math, unfortunately. So they're already getting they're getting instilled with that dosage of fear at home, and then they come into the classroom. They're getting instilled with another dosage of fear. So a lot of fear going around and people thinking that they're not equipped. They don't have the the skill set in order to be able to be successful, and that's something that we have to overcome.

Akil Parker [00:04:41]:
And one of the things I think we have to do is train teachers either not only better, but in different

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:04:47]:
ways. Okay. I I I got a question because you mentioned how there might be some math teachers who would claim that they're not math people. I'm a principal, and I'm fortunate enough to to have a math teacher. I don't think he's he feels that way. But it it did get me thinking about okay. There I mean, are there really teachers? I mean, have you heard teachers say that are math teachers that'll say, I don't I'm I'm not a math person?

Akil Parker [00:05:11]:
Well, definitely, if you think about, like, elementary level. So pre k through 5, where you're searching all the different content area. So there's there's a lot of that where Okay. And another issue that comes to mind when we speak of that is a lot of people will say that have plans to teach elementary school. They'll say, well, I don't I don't need to know calculus. So I don't need to understand trigonometry because I'm only teaching the 3rd grade, or I'm only teaching I only plan on teaching kindergartens. I just I'm teaching the babies how to count. We're gonna be playing with blocks all day, you know, in our math math lessons.

Akil Parker [00:05:39]:
But you still should have a understanding of higher level math because you're you're preparing it those children that are they may be 4 or 5, 6 years old, but you should have the, have the thought and the understanding that one day they're going to be in a calculus class. Right? So and also so if you have at least some understanding of calculus and or precalculus or trig or algebra 2 and geometry, that can inform how you teach them those fundamentals. Because those fundamentals are very key. And a lot of us don't have a sound as as teachers don't have a sound grasp of those those those fundamentals. And even even the arithmetic, like, a lot and this this is something that I came to find out when being self reflective in my own experience. I was seen as a a pretty good math student growing up in my k to 12 experience. But it wasn't until I became I started teaching a math methods my math methods courses at Cheyney University where I realized, like, wow. Like, I really didn't know arithmetic as well as I thought I did.

Akil Parker [00:06:34]:
So a lot of us don't really know arithmetic. We're not as strong in arithmetic. Like, we we may understand the algorithms, and this is another issue. A lot of us were taught algorithms. We we memorize the algorithms. We know, okay, how to multiply numbers. You stack the numbers on top of each other. We memorize those steps, but then we don't know any other methods.

Akil Parker [00:06:51]:
And, also, it's difficult for a lot of us to if we were asked to conceptually explain why does that algorithm work, a lot of us wouldn't be able to because we were only we weren't even taught to think about that. We were taught to just listen. Just memorize the steps in the process, get the right answer, go on to the next problem. Like, the conceptual understanding was lost on us because that wasn't the priority for a lot of us when we were growing up as children. So then fast forward, we become teachers whether you go through an education program on a on a on a undergraduate level or you're like me, a career changer, a person that kinda just went into teaching after having a finance degree and that that career path didn't work out. And then you kinda in there and you're like, you're doing the best you can, but you're still coming with that algorithm based approach. I mean, some people just need a job. Yeah.

Akil Parker [00:07:36]:
And so, like, I was like, I just needed it back in 2005. I pretty much just needed a job. Fortunate for me, I had the motivation to try to really hone my craft and develop my skills because I realized, like, wait, I'm supposed to teach this. I don't really understand this that well. So let me so I might have to stay up all night and, like, really figure some stuff out so that I can present and instruct my students and present this to them in a in a way that will make sense to them. And that was that was an ongoing process.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:08:01]:
Well but you said that you were a like, you were pretty decent in math throughout your k twelve experience. So I guess I'm wondering if there are teachers that maybe they're good in math or they feel feel pretty comfortable in math, but maybe the the teaching side of things is the piece or vice versa. Maybe they're good on the teaching side, but maybe math, and they just needed a job. And so, yeah, I could do a little math here and there, but I like to teach. So it it could that be possibly some of of what's what's happening?

Akil Parker [00:08:30]:
That's definitely the possibility. Like, because, you know, oftentimes, people will say, well, if you have an engineering degree, you've taken all these math courses in college. You've you've went up to calculus 3, and you've taken differential equations, maybe linear algebra. And so you should be able to teach math. Well, there's a there's oftentimes there's a huge difference, and this is not just in mathematics, but in a lot of subject areas. Sometimes, like, just because you know how to do something yourself, it does not necessarily mean you know how to explain it to other people. And a lot of times that comes with experience. You can be trained.

Akil Parker [00:08:57]:
Someone can try to show you how to deliver instruction. But oftentimes it comes with experience because I kinda liken it to being a quality rapper. Quality rappers can kinda switch their flow up depending on, okay, what type of beat is this? Who's producing this? Or am I like, I might be a rapper from New York, but I'm on a track with somebody from Florida or Atlanta or California. So I might wanna kinda be a little malleable and kinda adjust my flow for the audience or for for to their style. I always think about Biggie. Biggie's second album, Notorious Thugs, when he's rapping like bones Bone Thugs and Harmony. He's rapping just like them, just showing his range. As a teacher, you should be able to do that.

Akil Parker [00:09:34]:
You have to be able to differentiate and kinda showcase because you might have 5 different learning styles in your room at the same time. And you may not be able to show every method at the same time, but, okay, I'm a show you this method first of how to multiply these numbers. And then if that doesn't make sense, I'm a show you a different method, or then I'm a show you a different method. And you gotta really be able to do that. Whereas a lot of people, they they only know one way. No. They they know the way that they were taught. So they're like, look.

Akil Parker [00:10:01]:
Like, I'm a give it to you the way I know how to do it, and that's it. And it's like, if you don't get it, then you're just not gonna get it because a lot of teachers don't have as much range. So that's something that has to be has to be developed. You know, a teacher body.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:10:12]:
Gotcha. Alright. So does this go back to teacher education days? Like, one, you got a lot of teachers might be coming in on some alternative certification pathways, or you might have some student or some teachers that are coming in through a traditional format when it comes to student teaching, the whole nine. Do we need to start fair in in in higher education certification programs to make sure that we have the right type of candidates when it comes to math educators?

Akil Parker [00:10:39]:
I think we do, but I think also, like, it's it's only but so much that can be done in in the undergraduate course load. I think something in addition to that, though, I think we have to impress upon teachers to want to be kinda autodidactic. Okay. Be self motivated to say, look, like, you may need to like, I I tell my students at Cheney, there's a math methods course. It's a 2 part course, math 1105 and math 1106, fall semester and spring semester. And that's pretty much all the math that they'll encounter in their undergraduate experience. They may do a little bit of math and some of the other education courses, but nothing is as as focused as that. And it's really not enough, but it's enough for them to earn a degree.

Akil Parker [00:11:20]:
So I'd tell them, like, look. You some of you are are just I'm I'm very I'm brutally honest with them because we're dealing with young adults, and they're gonna be dealing with our babies. And we don't have time to, like, dance around the reality. I tell them, like, some of you are very weak in math, and you do weak in math. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you'll always be weak in math. But what you should do is when I go over a lesson on how to add fractions and how to teach people how to add fractions and you don't really understand how to find a common denominator or you don't, you know, understand the different methods of comparing the values of different fractions, that's something that you need to work on. And you're gonna you may have to do that outside of this class as just a issue of, professional development, self directed professional development. I mean, it's it's a issue of, I guess, personal ego.

Akil Parker [00:12:02]:
Like, you don't wanna be in a end up standing in front of a a group of students looking like you don't know what you're talking about. And that's that's one that's that should be one motivation. But the other the other main motivation is you want your students to learn, and you can't really teach them something that you don't really know. And if the education training program is inadequate to provide you with all of the development that you need. I actually would advocate for education majors that are gonna have to teach math, especially if you're in elementary school. If you're pre k through 5, you're probably gonna be teaching some math. If you are middle school through high school, maybe you'll say, well, I wanna teach English. Okay.

Akil Parker [00:12:40]:
Well, I think everybody in in the world should have a strong grad grasp of mathematics, but I can kinda make some concessions. But pre k through 5, I think we should be taking some pure math courses just to get a better understanding. And and hopefully, you end up with a with a good professor or a good teacher that really can break down for you. And you might it might end up being the best math class you ever took in your life, because you might it might actually start to make sense. Because a lot of people are like, I never really the people that claim that they're not math people are people that may say, well, I never liked it. It just never made sense to me. And then math is so cumulative of a subject that if something if one of the foundational elements doesn't make sense to you, then the stuff that comes after that is not gonna make sense either because you're still stuck on what you've missed in the beginning. It's like watching a bad movie.

Akil Parker [00:13:22]:
It's like in the in the first five minutes of the movie, like, something happens that doesn't make any sense. Like, I'm the type of person. I'm just frustrated. And I'm like, well, who's this person? Like, where did he come from? Like, I I can't really enjoy it because I'm like, because because there's no flow to the movie. It's all it's all just throw it off for me. Me.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:13:36]:
I'm the same way. I I I'm not gonna say what movie I just watched not too long ago in the theaters. I don't wanna talk talk down on it because I was really excited for this movie. But when I watched the story and as I was really thinking like, wait a second. This guy is doing this for this reason? It just threw me off for the rest of the movie. Like, I couldn't enjoy it because I was just so upset about the story even though it's it's not as fantasy. It wasn't based off of true events or it was highly unlikely. It just threw me off with how badly it was.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:14:08]:
I guess, in my mind, it was written to where I just could it just took me out of the whole movie. So Yeah. I hear you on that. Let me ask you this because I never thought about it the way that you've presented it because I'm the kind of person that feels like, oh, if I'm a 1st grade teacher, yeah, I'm gonna have to teach math, but some basic stuff to maybe some addition here and there, subtraction. But I love how you said, but you had to keep in mind that these students could potentially need to do some additional classes down the road. And so it's really good to set that foundation. I want to see if you can expand upon that a little bit further because I could hear some educators pushing back and say, no. They I got the curriculum that they I got the textbook.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:14:50]:
I'm just teaching the textbook, but this is what's in there. And I'm making sure I'm hitting those things, those standards, whatever it is. So I wanna see if you can make a a a better, not a better argument, but just kinda expand upon your thoughts in regards to why it's so important that we kinda think think further down the road.

Akil Parker [00:15:09]:
Yeah. Sometimes, like, as educators, sometimes just just the mention of something is helpful to a student or helpful to a child. And just like if you are let's say you're teaching 3rd grade and you're teaching multiplication of fractions. And then you just to say be able to say to a student, maybe when you're in 10th grade or 11th grade, when you're you're taking a trigonometry class and you have to graph sine functions or cosine functions, and sine and cosine functions can be used to basically draw a picture of what music and sound waves look like. And everybody here likes music. Who's your favorite rapper? Who's your favorite singer, whatever. When you have to find the period of the function, which is how wide one cycle of the function is, you're gonna have to divide this number by this other number. Just even if you don't go into a whole lesson, exhaustive lesson with your 3rd graders about how to grab sine functions, just saying that kinda sets them up and plants that seed.

Akil Parker [00:16:01]:
And I think that's part of good teaching. Like, just talking about, like, kinda getting the those young students to think about the future. Because already a lot of us kind of see math generally as this class to avoid. It's like this necessary evil, this class that like and and even there are a lot of students that excel in math, but they still don't really like math. It's like, I just wanna get an a, and they get a's. But if you ask them what their favorite subject is, it would never be math. It's just like, I I get math because I just want the grades, and I wanna keep it moving. So a lot of those students themselves, they may get an a, but they don't really get the full grasp and the full understanding of the mathematics either.

Akil Parker [00:16:39]:
And I think, like, having those conversations at a young age about, well, this skill that you're learning now, whether it's addition or subtraction or or or if you're teaching long division. One day when you get into algebra 2, you're gonna be doing polynomial long division. And then when you get into precalculus and you gotta, you know, graph higher order polynomial functions, like, to the 4th degree or 5th degree, you might be doing probably a long division again to try to figure some things out. Just to mention that is a is a huge deal. But if you're a teacher that is has no exposure to that, then you can't mention it because you can't talk about something that you don't know. So this is one of the main reasons why I think, like, under having a higher level understanding having a understanding of higher level math, even if you're teaching kindergarten, even if you're teaching 1st grade. Because think about it as parenting. There's so many parallels between teaching and parenting.

Akil Parker [00:17:26]:
As a parent, your child might be like, I have a 5 year old son. He'll be 6 and 9. But the conversations that I have with him are not just 6 year old converse conversations for 5 6 year olds. I'm having conversations with him just as I've done with my older children and continue to do with the thought in mind that, okay, one day he's gonna be a 21 year old man. One day he's gonna be a 30 year old man. One day he's gonna be 15. One day he's gonna be 10. I'm trying to prepare him for that.

Akil Parker [00:17:50]:
So if we look at teaching as a parallel to parenting, then I think that it starts to make even more sense why you have to kinda know what they're gonna look forward, what they have to look forward to, and what's coming next. It kind of just trying to start to prepare them for that early on.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:18:04]:
That's a great analogy. I love how you brought that in there because I think a lot of us, especially those listening, can relate to that. Okay. We're giving guidance. Sure. And we always talk about, yeah, they're human beings, right, at the end of the day. So, yeah, we're saying it's math, but we can that that's not all we're expecting them to learn in in during that time frame. Right? We we want them to learn some foundational math skills, but then also we had to think about what can I do to prepare them? So I guess the question that's coming to my mind is, like, it's Akhil saying that if I'm teaching elementary, I should be well versed up to algebra 1, 2, geometry, calculus.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:18:43]:
Like, where's the level that you would recommend that we would have some some some working knowledge if we're teaching in the elementary level?

Akil Parker [00:18:51]:
At a minimum, as as controversial as this might sound, at a minimum, calculus 1.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:18:56]:
Calculus 1. Tell me why.

Akil Parker [00:18:57]:
I'll say this. A lot of the people that will push back on that probably have never taken calculus 1. Or if they did take calculus 1, they didn't have a good calculus 1 teacher or instructor. So what you realize when you take calculus 1 is that there's a lot of algebra. Calculus 1 is very algebra heavy. Like, it's essentially an algebra. It's some might even go so far as to say it's it's really an algebra course with some additional rules and algorithms embedded in it. But there's so much algebra in it because it's about slope, and then you introduce slope, slope of a line like in algebra 1.

Akil Parker [00:19:24]:
And some students are taking algebra 1 in 7th grade, some of the 8th grade. And then before that, you have the pre calculus with the with the trigonometry in it, and you graphing different functions, and they look different ways. And when we talk about graphing, graphing is just like art class, like paint by numbers. A graph is just like giving you directions on how this curve should look. And the math that you do just tells you, okay, how wavy should it be, how curved should it be, how straight should it be over here, or maybe it's gonna be straight over here and then curved over there. It's really just art class. That's really all graphing is. The the geometry deals with the shapes.

Akil Parker [00:19:56]:
And and geometry is shouldn't shouldn't be a hard sell because there's a lot of geometry in the curriculum in elementary curriculum anyway. Just you may not be talking about, well, we're not gonna use Heron's formula to find the area of a triangle and and semi perimeter and all that with the 1st graders, but we're still talking about that concept of, like, what is what is a triangle? You find the perimeter of a triangle. What's the area of the triangle? Those concepts you're you're introducing them to. But again, if you're talking about the the these geometric concepts on a basic level, it helps for you to break them down if we're on a higher level. And and a lot of times, I think what happens too is we end up holding students back because who's to say that those 3rd 2nd or 3rd graders couldn't like, I kinda I made the comment that which I probably shouldn't have even made, that we're not gonna be showing them Heron's formula. But now that I think about it after I said it, why can't we show them Heron's formula? Because it it's not really that difficult. If if they understand how to multiply and then know how to subtract, and you might have even introduced it in the concept of a square root, what a square root is, and how to calculate a square root. Then they could use a Heron's formula at their grade.

Akil Parker [00:20:58]:
So I think I think that's something too because I think oftentimes we kind of hold students back based on setting these low expectations for them. And then a lot of teachers have these low expectations because, well, the curriculum says this anyway, so I don't really need to know this. But what if you did know it, and then you could introduce it, and then the students would know it. Like, I think about my oldest son who when he was 6 years old, like, because I'm a math teacher, I'm like, well, of course, I'm gonna teach my children more than what they're gonna get in the public school they go to. So my son was sick my oldest was 6 years old, and what I'm introducing him to solving simple equations. One step equations, 2 step equations. But he wasn't doing that in his school as a 1st grader. And it's and I also wanna say that because people are also also make assumptions that, oh, well, maybe your son is a genius or this and that.

Akil Parker [00:21:43]:
Like, he wasn't a genius. He was an intelligent young black boy that could handle it. And I I sat down with him and I was showing him some things, and I'm and I I'm of the opinion that a lot of his classmates could have handled it too, but it wasn't on the curriculum. Solving simple 2 step equations, 2x +5 equals 13. That wasn't on his curriculum. He wasn't expected to know that, so therefore, he wasn't his teacher wasn't teaching them that because that wasn't her responsibility. She wasn't charged with doing that, but yet they could handle it. So I think about all the young black boys and girls that could handle a lot more math if it had only been introduced to them.

Akil Parker [00:22:16]:
But it also requires that the teachers have to know it. So then the teachers could think, wow. Wait. Wait. What? I can show them this. So it's kinda like if you're a teacher and you understand basketball, like you have an intimate knowledge of basketball or football. And you say, okay, this child really likes that these children really like basketball or football. So and also have a a strong understanding of mathematics.

Akil Parker [00:22:36]:
Let me merge the mathematics with the sports and create some content, some word problems for this next standard that we're gonna cover, or these for these this or this next topic that we're gonna cover because you know it. But if you don't know the basket, you know about basketball, you don't know about football, then you you can't if you don't know about football, then it's like, well, yeah. How can I teach them how to calculate the quarterback pass rating Josh Allen had yesterday or Jalen Hertz or Lamar Jackson or whoever had yesterday in the in the playoff game if I don't know football? But if you know the math, you know you know some algebra, and you also understand football, you can merge those 2 and then provide that lesson. And what that does is for those students that otherwise might end up becoming scared of mathematics, what you've done is you've destigmatized it. So now they're thinking like, wow. Okay. So there's algebra in my favorite sport. Okay.

Akil Parker [00:23:22]:
So maybe algebra is not so bad. We don't create that that relevant content, then they'll never have that experience, and they may end up growing the math. I don't see the point of it. Why do I have to learn this? How's it gonna help me in life? It's not gonna help me.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:23:32]:
One of the key things I'm hearing is the importance of making sure that you're relating this concepts to everyday stuff. Like you you mentioned football games. Maybe your students can can like, hey. I just watched the game this weekend. And so now I can understand how these concepts interrelate. Because a lot of teach a lot of students will say, I'll never use this. Why do I have to learn these things? I'll never use it.

Akil Parker [00:23:54]:
And those those opportunities, like, look, the and these things that you're already doing because a lot of us, like, if we if we don't have, like, a certain math skill set or understanding of mathematics, we end up just kinda, like, just guessing. When there might be actually a formula and a process that you could use to come up with a more precise solution for something. Otherwise, you're just like, well, I don't know. Like, well, let me just get that. I often think that a lot of businesses fail because people don't know how to do certain math to forecast and make project accurate projections for how much how much supplies should they purchase? How many how many customers do I think I'm gonna have at at this particular time of day or or the these months or whatever? And they just kinda like, well, I don't know. I mean, a lot of people probably gonna come by. So let me just buy let me just go to the restaurant depot and buy a bunch of salmon without even considering, like, are you gonna be able to sell all that salmon? Like, or or what if you don't buy enough? You don't buy enough and then people show up. Now they're mad because they're like, man, we went to the new restaurant, man.

Akil Parker [00:24:50]:
They didn't even had they didn't have nothing left. So I'm never coming back here. And then they tell they tell people who tell people who tell people who tell people, and now your restaurant has a bad reputation. All because you didn't know how to do the algebra. You could've just made it made a calculation, use the formula, but instead, it's grand opening, grand closing of your business.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:25:08]:
Okay. Okay, Jay z. So okay. So let's so what do you recommend for middle and high? So you said elementary, you recommend Calculus 1. Yeah. As far as middle school and high school, would you recommend us that same level? Plus, you need to be familiar with whatever content area you're you're teaching in.

Akil Parker [00:25:27]:
Yeah. I'm I'm recommending Calc 1 at a minimum for everybody.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:25:30]:
Okay.

Akil Parker [00:25:30]:
Yeah. I'm in because I'm I I kinda that kinda comes from me by Moses's work, by Moses of the algebra project, the late Bob Moses, his ancestor now. But he coauthored a book, Radical Equations along with Charles Cobb. He was in snick with student nonviolent coordinating committee back in the 19 sixties, when they were doing a lot of work in Mississippi, trying to help people get up, trying to push back on segregation and Jim Crow and trying to help people get registered to vote and whatnot. Well, he said that he his goal was for every student to be at the end of 12th grade at a minimum to be calculus ready. Maybe they wouldn't doesn't necessarily mean they would have taken a calculus course in high school, which I think is great to have already taken calculus in high school, but at at least to be calculus ready. Meaning, you've already you already have a proficiency in geometry, proficiency in algebra 1 and algebra 2, a proficiency in trigonometry, and the other precalculus topics, and of course, a strong foundation in in arithmetic. So I think that of any any grade level, I think we should have teachers should have a a foundation, at least a an an awareness of calculus topics, up to calculus topics.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:26:34]:
And that

Akil Parker [00:26:34]:
and it just gets a bad rap, this guy. But needs a it needs like the the PR team that brussels sprouts has has had in the last few years. Because brussels sprouts, you know, they they they rebranded themselves. The people like brussels sprouts now. Growing up, I

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:26:46]:
hated this. I still want you.

Akil Parker [00:26:48]:
I don't care.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:26:49]:
Everybody always say, oh, you just didn't have them cooked. Oh, no. I'm good. I'm good. I don't need no brussels sprouts. You ain't nothing you can tell me that someone wants to get some brussels sprouts. Oh, they just hadn't been seasoned well. No.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:27:02]:
I don't care. I don't care what kind of promo, what marketing you got going. That is not for the work. Okay. Okay. Alright. Alright. Listen, Akhil.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:27:11]:
I I I'll tell you this. I I've learned a lot, and you you really honestly have have got me thinking. And I and I don't know enough about mathematics, the concepts of mathematics as to why calculus 1. Like, I I think you did a really good job with explaining it, but just for me to understand why all teachers need Calculus 1 probably because I I don't like math myself personally. I think that's probably what my trepidation is. But overall, I think you bring up some really good points. And so I'd love for you to kinda final words of advice for those who are still on the fence about, like, their level. Because I I could just see some of the audience out there, like, nah.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:27:53]:
I don't agree with that. I don't wanna give you one one final word that you would like to provide to our listeners.

Akil Parker [00:28:01]:
Well, one thing I'll say is this, like, I think it's it's very helpful to look at the applications regardless of what the level of of the math is, whether it's precalculus, calculus, geometry, algebra 1, algebra 2, looking at the applications. Because once you look at the applications, then even you as a teacher, you see the relevancy of it. But for the elementary school teacher, even the kindergarten teacher, the pre k teacher, like, having having that understanding of, like, the full gamut or the full scope of the subject. And that and that's not I shouldn't say the full scope because Calculus 1 is is really just the beginning of higher level math. There's so much beyond that. And and a lot of those courses, I myself have not even taken. So perhaps when I when I really one day when I get into Calc 2 and Calc 3 and differential equations and linear algebra topology and all of that, which I plan to do, I might say, listen. No.

Akil Parker [00:28:47]:
Y'all y'all need to learn, but they're in this too, man. Because this is even it gets even deeper. But at that point, it's like, it becomes fun and interesting. If it's not fun and interesting, then you're not gonna wanna do it, and you're not gonna see value in it. But I think that when you look at the applications of of the calculus and the applications of the the geometry and those those higher level classes, then it becomes more beneficial. And I think a lot of us too, like, we we just we have we have trauma. We had negative experiences in school. So I think and we we internalize that trauma.

Akil Parker [00:29:17]:
A lot of us think, well, like, math class made us feel dumb. And a lot of people use math class as a marker or a metric for how smart we were generally. And there are a lot of brilliant people that have failed math classes multiple times and have haven't done well in math. And for them, they take that as they kind of don't believe in their own brilliance because of that experience they had in math classes. When in fact, what I would say is, like, you're still a brilliant person. So a lot of us try to shy away from math just because of how it made us feel that social emotional aspect of of math class. So I think as teachers, we have to figure out ways to kind of separate ourselves from that and kinda say, like, well, I am not it's kinda like what a therapist might tell you. Like, you are not your mistakes.

Akil Parker [00:29:58]:
Those were those were just you made mistakes. You're human. Right? But you are not the equivalent of your mistakes. You are a a human being, you know, with desires and interests and intelligence and good personality. Don't allow your mistake your your failure in math to determine your personality and constantly beat yourself up about it for, like, the rest of your life. And then so so when you go into the classroom, you you watch this this YouTube and somebody's talking about you need to learn a higher level math. Don't don't don't try not to get triggered by it and think, no. I'm staying away from that.

Akil Parker [00:30:30]:
I'm never doing any math unless unless it's it's in my curriculum.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:30:33]:
We we weren't trying to trigger anybody, folks. I hope hope you stuck around by the way. But, no, I think at the end of the day I think you're right. I'm just pushing back just because again maybe I have been triggered if I was to go back. I know, like I said I typically have struggled in math but I think you're bringing up some really good points. If we have some folks that wanna connect with you, Kale, what's the best way to reach you online?

Akil Parker [00:30:56]:
The website is all this math dot com. I'm on Instagram, Facebook at all this math. And also, please definitely go to the YouTube channel, all this math on YouTube. All this math. We currently have about 64 100 subscribers, and I got about 830 videos up ranging from arithmetic to calculus 1. So if you're one of those teachers, one of the elementary ones my my calculus content's a little light right now. I'm gonna be adding more. I need to add more calculus content, but I'm very algebra heavy.

Akil Parker [00:31:25]:
Algebra and arithmetic heavy. So it's definitely a good resource for for teachers as well, like, early career teachers if you wanna get some different perspectives on how to teach certain things. And sometimes it's just good for your your students just to hear the same thing you already said yesterday in class, but from somebody else. So you can kind of be the the guide on the side instead of the sage on stage as they say. Just just let the video play on your smart board.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:31:47]:
What's the name of your book?

Akil Parker [00:31:48]:
The book is called How to Use All This Math Volume 1, and that's available on Amazon. And so, yeah, you got the the kind of cartoon figure of, like, that's supposed to be me and this is my daughter. She's in a lot of my my video content on on the YouTube channel. It's a guide book for parents. Educators can use it as well, but I may I wrote it with parents in mind, just to kinda show them how these everyday activities that you're already involved in with your children, you can leverage those and create teachable moments, and you can help to develop them in terms of their algebra and their arithmetic and unit conversions when they go into the kitchen and get a bag of chips. Because on the bag of chips, there's the the imperial system. It might be, like, 2 ounces, and then at the same time, there's the metric measurement. And then so they can do the algebra and they can figure out, well, how much how many milligrams would 3 ounces be? And then just imagine, like, if your children are doing that on a regular basis, how much better prepared they'll be for for math class when they go to school.

Akil Parker [00:32:45]:
Because that's what I had in mind. Because I think that parents especially and and all of us, I think have been conditioned that, well, for math, just outsource it, just send them to school. Just let the math teacher teach them all the math, but that could be overwhelming. And it's like, so many different learning styles, so many different students at different levels, different developmental levels, different math levels in the same classroom a lot of times. You want your children to be as prepared as possible. So so that when they're in the classroom, they can kinda hit the ground running as opposed to coming in there, like, almost knowing nothing, which is what they they unfortunately, the condition that a lot of children are in when they they come into school at different grade levels. And then you factor in the the effects of the pandemic. I just things that these problems have been compounded.

Akil Parker [00:33:25]:
So I just want they're just different examples in the book of how riding in the car with your children or going to Target or when they go to, when you when you go to the grocery store with them. Just simple things that you could do on a on a repetitive regular basis to help them develop their arithmetic ability and their algebra ability. So and these are things that are eventually gonna see in school, but it's different if when they see it in school, they're like, oh, yeah. Me and my dad do that all the time. Me and my mom have been doing this since I was little. So now now school math class becomes a space for practice. And it it's math class becomes like recess because a lot of children like recess because especially, like, the young brothers, they love recess because it's like, oh, I get to show off my basketball skills, my football skills. But they didn't learn that in school.

Akil Parker [00:34:06]:
They learned that in their community, at home, in the neighborhood, in the alley, around the way. So we can learn a lot of the skills that are in the school curriculum, scope and sequence in the house, in in a relaxed environment. There's no there's no standardized test when you're in the kitchen just hanging out with your kids. There's no standardized test. So we can start talking about these things. And, but then when he gets to school and they get prepared for the standardized test, it's it's a lot they're less stressed because they're like, oh, this is something I already know how to do anyway. So that's that's why I made that's what I had in mind when I when I wrote this book back in 2023. And I'm also working on a volume too, because there's so many examples.

Akil Parker [00:34:41]:
There's no shortage of examples of how in everyday life, there are potential math problems, algebra problems, geometry problems, and we don't have to wait. And I think it's a good way for there to be to create more parental involvement. So we don't children don't have to wait until they get to school to learn a lot of things.

Dr. Sheldon Eakins [00:34:56]:
Love it. Folks, we're gonna leave links in the show notes. Make sure you support and grab yourself a copy and look out for volume 2 when it comes out. Akhil, it has truly been a pleasure. I appreciate all your time. Thank you so much.

Akil Parker [00:35:09]:
Thank you, man.

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