Off the Grid

Overall, I agreed with the theme of the paper. Why are so many places separated by straight lines? Although this may seem to be not as important at first, if you look deeper into it the nature of this is problematic. Consider Africa for example, where straight lines or other unnatural boundaries were created by Europeans during colonization. This has ultimately lead to violent ethnic conflict in certain regions, as feuds and relationships between different peoples was not taken into consideration. Or on a lighter note, the Canada-U.S. border is infamously a straight line for the most part along the 49th parallel. This has lead to weird citizenship situations, notably Point Roberts, which is connected to Vancouver Metro, but is part of the United States since it technically is below the 49th parallel. Since the citizens of this city are American, they have to attend school in Washington state, which takes at least 40 minutes!

A point in the article that struck my interest was when the author was talking about the Principle of Relativity and related it to grids in the style of Riemannian geometry. Arguing that there is no right geometry to use, and as such we should broaden our horizons when it comes to implementing different geometries in grids was an interesting statement. They say that "variety is the spice of life", and I feel like giving grids the ability to be designed in mathematical patterns would be fascinating.

When talking about incorporating Indigenous content into classes, I always wonder "how", especially in a mathematics course. However, this article sheds light Indigenous traditions and their relationship with geometry. Being able to use this in a class could help both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Indigenous students would be able to learn in a way that they are accustomed to, whereas non-Indigenous students would be able to explore new ideas of how to appreciate and solve problems in math, and being able to solve problems in a multitude of ways helps the student understand the content better.