“trails aren’t just paths…”

As I was working on my about page, I wanted to include a quote about trails being teachers. So, imagining something like that existed, I typed it into google and sure enough, the first thing I saw:

“Trails aren’t just paths. They’re teachers.”

Said by someone anonymous.

Everything about that perfectly encapsulates the work I am doing on this site, in my classroom, and for math as a whole.

The equations, the formulas, the shapes, the step by step instructions, the problem solving and thinking tasks… They don’t exist just to get to the right answer.

They are the answer.

The hike up to the summit is the lesson. The page full of eraser marks, pencil scribbles, numbers, wrong answers - that’s the lesson. It’s not the viewpoint, the peak, or the answer circled at the bottom of the page. That’s not where you learn.

It’s the trail to it.