baldurs_turnstile

Hi Sasha! Fellow math phd here. I find it interesting that people would frame your choices as selfish and wasteful-- to me that says everything about how many people, especially in America, frame math education (and education in general) as a field for people with "not enough" talent.

We should be thrilled that more subject experts are going into education. The potential for added value coming from even one person who really loves their subject is enormous. I'm sure many of us, who have either gotten our phds or work in a math-adjacent field, can credit that one teacher who inspired us along the way. I had teachers like that in 11th and 12th grade who really changed everything for me.

That's interesting on kind of a meta level, like the old classical hero is making way for the new modern hero in a way that gives literary continuity.

Yeah, to me it almost reads as a mixture of daydreaming and imagination as a means of escape. It's definitely the kind of thing that you would see in kids who grow up in abject poverty or in abusive situations.

I can't speak for them, but while having at least one of your parents to be on the academic side is crucial for expanding your horizons, not everyone who gets into a college like MIT has had 'every expense paid for'.

I'm from a developing country. My dad is a doctor, but looking at our purchasing power compared to a US doctor we'd probably be like lower middle class. I didn't go to the best schools and we certainly couldn't afford tutoring or SAT prep. I wasn't able to send my SAT scores to many colleges or even send in many applications because it all adds up so fast.

But the crucial thing about my upbringing is that my dad encouraged me to work hard to get into a good university, and encouraged me to read widely and think big. Since he had the experience, he wanted his kids to have every opportunity as well.

I'm not from money and I'm not from class (especially compared to some of my American classmates who really got everything they asked for), but I still consider myself privileged because of these intangible qualities in my upbringing.