Over 68 years with mathematics: my story of healing from modern superstitions and reclaiming my sense of being and well-being

Resumen

Clarification: Since the 1970s, I don’t remember writing a single word whose meaning does not have connection to some experience (including my quoting stories told by others). This is in harmony with a conviction that started growing within me since I became aware of my illiterate mother’s mathematics, and since I realized that her world formed a “universe” while mine claimed to be “universal”. I can’t think of a word that has universal meaning. Any word I use in this paper is contextual, and in most cases connected to experiences and actions. This new-found awareness led me to avoid teaching and thinking of mathematics out of context. In this paper, I start from the existential situations that I lived, and speak for myself, and invite others to tanaaqush (the closest meaning in English to tanaaqush in Arabic is: “mutually nurturing dialogue”). I am trying to make sense of my experience by saying honestly how I feel and perceive things. This opens oneself to being confronted. I write especially for young people in Arab countries, but also for youth in general: they have been victims of control, mainly through being constantly measured. In a very true sense, this paper is a statement of confessions.