I Am Not A Mathematician

The Original Source Of This Speech

“I Am Not A Mathematician” was a blog article I wrote and published on 10 March 2014 for a blog I created for my Mathematics Department in the junior college that I taught in. The original article was entitled “Mathematics Teachers Are Not Mathematicians”. As I was the only person contributing to that blog, I decided to let the domain name expire and let the blog die a natural death instead of having to continue paying for the annual renewal of the domain name.

Recently, I have managed to retrieve all my blog articles from that expired and defunct blog database and will be publishing some of these old articles in my new mathematics website after some editing and updating.

This particular article was not really a mathematical article so I decided to use it for my Club International Speech Contest. It was an expression of my frustration with many people I came across who casually and unabashedly gave themselves titles of “mathematician”, “statistician”, “historian”, “philosopher”, etc. when they knew little of the subjects.

The original article was much longer so I trimmed it down to fit into a 5 to 7-minute speech. As I was rehearsing my speech, I found that the article was originally meant to be published as a written article and not really meant for a speech. So I edited it further to include elements that made some parts of the speech to sound more conversational and interactive.

Club & Area Level International Speech Contest

“I Am Not A Mathematician”  was the speech I used for Toastmasters International Speech Contest in 2022 where I won at the club level.

• International Speech Contest
• Speaker: Daniel Sun
• The Open Alumni Toastmasters Club International Speech Contest held on 17 February 2022
• Area B1/B2 International Speech Contest held on 27 March 2022
• Title: I Am Not A Mathematician

You Are A Mathematician

Contest Chair, fellow toastmasters, I graduated with a science degree majoring in Mathematics. I then taught Mathematics in a junior college for a few decades until I resigned to gain greater personal freedom a few years ago. 

As a result, many people would say to me, “Oh! You are a mathematician!” To that, I am quick to correct them saying, “No, I am not a Mathematician. I am just a Mathematics teacher.”

You Are A Lecturer

Friends, acquaintances, and members of public tend to refer to me as a lecturer just because I taught in a junior college.

I used to correct them that I was just a teacher, receiving a salary no more than a secondary school teacher. Even a primary school teacher who is a degree holder is on the same salary scale as I was. 

Regarding the title of lecturer, it is a title reserved for teaching staff in tertiary institutions, which include universities and polytechnics. For your information, university and polytechnic staff are not answerable to the Ministry of Education.

Not only are our titles different, but the privileges are different too, not to mention … our salaries. 

We Are Just Merely Schoolteachers

I therefore humbly refer to myself as only a schoolteacher. Having graduated from the university majoring in Mathematics, that does not qualify me to be a Mathematician. I would only say that I am schooled in Mathematics. In the university, I was introduced to the rudiments and fundamentals of the rigour of what Mathematics are. 

Have you heard people calling themselves a historian or a mathematician? I have. Most of the time, these people are teachers. During my days as a teacher trainee, one of my fellow classmates told our tutor, “I am a statistician. Blah! Blah! Blah!” and on he went. Let me clarify that to you, ladies, and gentlemen. What he meant merely was that he probably studied Statistics as one of his modules in his final year. Yes, one. Just one.

Who Are Mathematicians?

Who then are Mathematicians? First, they should have at least obtained their Ph. D. in Mathematics. As a life-long process, they must devote their life to studying and researching into areas of Mathematics, attempting to solve unsolved Mathematical problems like Fermat’s last theorem, 4-Colouring Problems, etc. What am I talking about? Never mind! You won’t know what they are if you have not studied Mathematics in the university.

These people are usually (but not necessarily) academics lecturing Mathematics in universities. On a side note, in our local universities like National University of Singapore, the management takes a very serious view if a mathematics lecturer is not making contribution in research. They will be asked to leave.

The cream of the crops among my peers back during my undergraduate days, were all asked to leave after 2 years of contract as lecturers – all except one.

Well, what else could mathematicians be doing if they are not university lecturers? Well, they could be contributing their research in the next 6G technology in Huawei. Huh! You are probably thinking, “Are you serious?” Yes, do you know that Huawei employed the top professors in Mathematics and Science for its Research and Development programme? And they are paid very well.

So, do you still think that you are a Mathematician just because you teach Mathematics?

Do you still want to call yourself a Mathematician? 

Someone I Knew Who Claimed To Be A Philosopher

However, have you heard anyone calling themselves a linguist, a philosopher, an economist or even … a scientist? I think you seldom do. I have not.

Oh … maybe there was once when a colleague told me of another colleague who called himself a philosopher because he studied Philosophy in the university. I would regard Plato as a philosopher but as for him … I knew him when he was a student studying in the junior college I taught in, and I know his whole family personally, his father, his mother, and his younger brother.

Let me see, is he a philosopher. I don’t think any of you have ever heard of him. I won’t even waste any of my time here mentioning his name to all of you here because none of you would have heard of him.

Likewise, are all Economics teachers, economists? I am sure you will at least agree with me that science teachers are definitely not scientists. Just because a science teacher knows that ice melt at 0 degree Celsius and water boils at 100 degree Celsius? I learned that back in Primary 5.

Do Not Think Too Highly Of Yourselves But Think Soberly

So, do not call yourselves Historians, Philosophers, Linguists, Sociologists, Economists, Scientists, and so on, and so forth, just because you have studied these subjects as undergraduates or are teaching these subjects as schoolteachers. It takes much more than just having enrolled in a course to qualify yourselves to such titles. 

In conclusion, let me leave you with a verse from the Book of Romans Chapter 12 Verse 3.

” For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly.

Romans 12:3

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not a Mathematician. I was just a Mathematics teacher.

Back to you, Contest Chair.