My father was my first math teacher. He actually started teaching us math - me, my brothers, and sister - when we were very young, and living in Tanzania where my brothers and I were born. He was responsible for teaching us math. My mother was responsible for teaching us how to read. After we came to America, he continued to teach us math throughout our elementary school years. He was very consistent and deeply dedicated to our math work - he even got our cousins to do math when they visited. When he came into my classroom in the eighth grade to teach me and a few of my classmates algebra, it was a natural extension of the work that he had been doing in our family for 10 years. Although school math was easy, doing math at home was challenging and often felt like a chore - we did almost all of the problems in the book and did not move on until I got them right. I liked math in school because I did well in it. It wasn't until I was older that I came to realize and appreciate how much my success in math in school was related to all the work that my father did with me as a child.
- Maisha
King Open School: Bob began teaching Algebra in Maisha’s (his oldest daughter) 8th grade class. He continued to teach his son’s, Omo and Taba, and their friends. When asked, all parents felt their child should learn Algebra in 8th grade, but all parents didn’t feel every child should learn Algebra by 8th grade. Maisha Moses, YPP Lead Trainer
The Algebra Project was founded in Cambridge, Ma, with the slogan, “Algebra For All”, “Algebra Para Todos”.
Omo and Taba work as counselors in the Boston Algebra Project Summer Program run by Jackie Rivers at Freedom House.