Recently I had an opportunity to experience something new and different: a stand-up routine on maths identity. It was very entertaining, as comedy performances are supposed to be anyway, but it also told an interesting story about exploration of identity and everyday maths.

Kelly Pickard-Smith performed her Math Therapy routine in the Pop-up Festival of Identities telling about her own journey and commenting on the occasions for everyday maths along the way. (These included a very unreliable contraception method and how long is 20 minutes for men and women amongst other things.)

Undoubtedly maths is everywhere from shopping and figuring sales prices in percentages to applying for mortgages and reading payslips but what has that got to do with identity?

Wikipedia says that ‘identity is the conception, qualities, beliefs, and expressions that make a person’. It seems that our maths identities are built from our experiences and some of those are not always ones that we have created ourselves. People may have bad memories from their school-days or even suffer from maths anxiety. And don’t get me started with the incredible notions that girls are not as good or interested in maths as boys.

Maths is an emotional subject after all.

The good news is that our identities change. We are not the same through life but our stories evolve and we change. Therefore, our maths identities can change too. We can learn to use maths and not to be afraid of numbers.

Union learning Reps (ULRs) and union learning centres have been successful in encouraging people to take a plunge and improve their maths skills. Sometimes the change in story has been a learner’s realisation that they need to learn to do maths differently to help their kids with homework. Or there is a recent case study from the POA learning centre where maths learning helped Amanda towards completion of a vocational qualification.

So, maths is everywhere whether we are working or studying or managing our lives at home.

Kelly pointed out in her talk that the line between tragedy and comedy is very fine. The maths stories can change from tragedy to comedy too. One way to do it is to see what ULRs and learning centres offer around the Festival of Learning in May and June.

Or you can have a laugh about maths by having a look at stand-up mathematician Matt Parker’s YouTube channel. Check out the card tricks and take a peek at the commentary which is quite entertaining too – in a maths sort of way.