Feeling sheepish (met Liping Ma IRL)

[HejKatt]

I went to a Chinese school open-house on Saturday, to see if it would be suitable for DS. I knew the principal was Liping Ma, of Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics fame, but I had shelved it into the back of my mind because we were running late.

 

Anyhow, I stepped into the packed classroom, found the only available seats were in the front row and took one. The lady in front spoke about the curriculum's methodologies, drew a chart of the number of vocabulary words learned per grade, and answered questions about the school.

 

I kid you not, while listening to her, my thoughts were:

#1. Ah, so that's Ma Liping, who wrote the book.

#2. I wonder if I should have brought my copy and talked to her about it, maybe even ask if she would sign it?

 

Right after thought #2, I felt so embarrassed because I've never approved of autograph chasing, and here I was acting like a teenager (!). :glare:

 

I did manage to focus after that, but thought some of you might find it funny that this is what happened when the WTM, Math and Chinese parts of my brain collided. :lol:

[dsmama]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[Spy Car]

I wonder to what extent she realizes that she is very famous (and almost revered) in a very small subset of our nation.

 

It must be kind of strange having this unusual type of fame.

 

Bill

[MBM]

Cool. The last I read about her she was studying children who didn't grasp math well. I'd love to hear what she's learned.

[HejKatt]

As an aside, I found this discussion online where math professors were discussing her work.

http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=4865675&tstart=0

 

One of the posters mentioned he asked her for an autograph.. I feel a bit better now, if even math professors do that. :)

[JessMcG]

:tongue_smilie:

 

I so would have asked for an autograph.

[HejKatt]

SpyCar: I'm going to make a guess that she knows among the mathematics community. Among the Chinese community, I doubt it since both homeschooling and afterschooling are uncommon (by afterschooling, I mean that done by parents, Chinese afterschools are common here). At the open house I attended, the other parents just left the room quickly to enroll for the school which has long waiting lists, and she was left in the classroom to stack up the extra chairs.

 

MBM, Einen: :) I would so have loved to talk about math with her, but alas my Mandarin isn't up to talking intelligently about the topic.

[Spy Car]

SpyCar: I'm going to make a guess that she knows among the mathematics community. Among the Chinese community, I doubt it since both homeschooling and afterschooling are uncommon (by afterschooling, I mean that done by parents, Chinese afterschools are common here). At the open house I attended, the other parents just left the room quickly to enroll for the school which has long waiting lists, and she was left in the classroom to stack up the extra chairs.

 

MBM, Einen: :) I would so have loved to talk about math with her, but alas my Mandarin isn't up to talking intelligently about the topic.

 

Does Ma not speak English? She must, yes? Or no?

 

What I mean is I wonder if she knows how famous she is in our community and how for many of us it would be like meeting a "rock star."

 

Stacking chairs? Like I said, a strange kind of fame.

 

Bill

[SonshineLearner]

I so would have liked to be in a room stacking chairs for her!! (or with :)) I would love to look around the school where she's a principal; is there a link? She speaks English, right? I would like to have her as a speaker sometime :) Great!!! From a beginning where we could have never heard about her work... to here... Amazing!! :)