Pondering What Aught To Be: A Commentary on the Mathematical Writings of the Journal of the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers' Society (2000-2010)

I begin this text in the words of Milner (2008), proclaiming that yes, there is definitely “something about math teaching that [I] need to get off [my] chest”and I’d like to think I have a few “pearls of wisdom to share” (p. 9). After carefully reading this selection of SMTS journal writings, in addition to a few other writings during those aughts, I frame this commentary chapter in the form of three (3) questions: How should mathematics be (t)aught and learned? Are mathematics educators (c)aught in a cycle of perpetuating uninviting images of what it means to know and do mathematics? Is teacher education (fr)aught with paralysis? I address these three questions in/through reflecting on the insightful and thoughtprovoking ‘aughts’ decade of the Journal of the Saskatchewan Mathematics Teachers’ Society. First, however, it seems important to provide a few lines in the way of contextualizing myself, the author of this commentary chapter.