by Anna Baker
As part of an Assessment and Feedback special interest group (SIG) session (26 October 2022) led by Maxine Gillway, participants read Can a rubric do more than be transparent? Invitation as a new metaphor for assessment criteria (Bearman and Ajjawi, 2021).
“Invitation as a new metaphor” reminded me of this poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer and inspired me to re-work it as the invitation I extend to my students in the Maths classroom.
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know how you do Mathematics and if you dare to plunge into a difficult problem.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool to pursue an idea, for the adventure of finding an answer.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know how you read and write your squared notation, and if the rules of indices induce a surge of power in your soul.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, from the frustration of some algebra which does not cancel out, or from the finality of a negative discriminant decrying no real roots.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can finish a factorisation with a flourish and derive happiness from an elegant solution.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true Sometimes, Always or Never – as long as you can convince me with examples
Or better yet – a proof!
Isn’t that what Mathematics is, anyway? A quest for the absolute, purest truth.
Irrefutably iridescent, irrationally brilliant.
Respect the equals sign.
Show your working.
Be resilient.
The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
References
Bearman, M. and Ajjawi, R., 2021. Can a rubric do more than be transparent? Invitation as a new metaphor for assessment criteria. Studies in Higher Education, 46(2), pp.359-368.
Mountain Dreamer, O. 1994. The Invitation. Available at: http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com/ [Accessed 16 November 2022].
Fantastic adaptation of the poem, Anna, and such a creative application of learning from the session!