A Response to Was Pythagoras Chinese

  I believe that acknowledging non-European sources of mathematics makes a big difference to the students. The western schooling system is very Euro-centric, and it's extremely prevalent in mathematics; all theories seem to come from the Ancient Greeks, and it can give the student the impression or underlying belief that only white males are capable of finding such theories. Acknowledging non-European sources of mathematics may give students of different backgrounds someone to look up to, or connect them to their culture. Also, as teachers it is our job to give accurate and correct facts, so when we acknowledge only part of history, we are doing disservice to our students. I think the best way to connect this is: imagine you created some new invention, succeeded locally, and had recognition from those in your city. You're the only person in that market (you're aware of) for years, and one day someone across the continent announces they've come up with a 'new invention', which is the same as yours. Now imagine if that other person, who claimed to have discovered this invention, gets all the praise and glory for it, and is taught about for years to come. This is what happens when we do not acknowledge the other cultures that had similar discoveries, hundreds of years before. We are discrediting them, when we should be celebrating their achievements! 

I believe that theorems shouldn't be named after people, as we've learnt that there is no historical accuracy to whether that person 'really' discovered it or not. We've also learnt that different civilizations have come up with similar theories, in different time periods, but have named them differently. For example, Pythagoras was the first to come up with a proof (or was he?) for the right-triangle, but he wasn't the first person to notice or use it, as the Gougu theorem was used by the Chinese. I believe that theories should be named after what they solve, like Pythagoreans theorem should really be named: Right Triangle Theory (as stated in the text), as this doesn't assign credibility, but also centralizes terminology.