The Human side of a Math teacher:

Math teachers are usually seen as rigorous, pedantic and dry. A College Math teacher shared with me the following story that offers a different perspective. Among other topics, the class was working patterns, counting and also on the connection between math and cooking. The students were also preparing a Math Fair for children which will involve displays, posters, and demonstrations to share the beauty of Math with younger children. The teacher suggested to the students to make chochip cookies that will be decorated in a certain way that uses symmetry and pattern and motivate the kids to see math in the cookies. Two days before the next class the teacher decided that he will experiment with the cookies himself. He bought the ingredients and started baking. Not having the experience the cookies came out terrible. The mathematical patterns did not come up right, the cookies were undercooked. They were also too big and could not be separated from each other. The kitchen was a mass and a whole beautiful evening seemed to be ruined. The poor math teacher could not face the darkness and fell into an old bad habit that he had as a teenager. Rather than facing the problem at hand he buried his negative emotions and started eating the half baked cookies without control which created more and more inner frustration and inner turmoil.

But this is not the end of the story. The teacher went to sleep, shared what happened with his wife and with a loving friend and decided to bring the half baked cookies to the class to share with his students and demonstrate the human side of a math teacher. The next day was full of light, love and creativity and showed again, like many times before, how paradoxical and beautiful life is.