Posted by Carlos Lopez Gonzalez on 2026-01-05
OCTM President Mike Lipnos sat down with Carlos Lopez Gonzalez and Michael Todd Edwards to discuss agency, leadership, and what it will take to make Ohio's new Math Plan actually work.
"We're in a human business," Lipnos explains. "We are human beings facilitating the learning process in young humans. Yet we're always dealing with this power struggle—'I'm the keeper of knowledge, I'm gonna tell you how to think.' It dehumanizes learning for everybody."
After nearly three decades in education, Lipnos made himself a promise: "I'm never gonna tell a child how to do something again." That commitment forced him to learn how to facilitate rather than lecture—and to teach diagnostically.
On what makes Ohio's new Math Plan different, Lipnos is direct: "For the first time, our state has taken a stance and said, this is what we want to be happening in our math classrooms." But he's equally clear that the plan only works "if we do the work."
The key, he argues, is leadership: "If we don't approach it from leadership down, we can have no collective efficacy. Teachers don't have that kind of power alone."
This interview was conducted by Carlos Lopez Gonzalez as part of the Voices from the Field series.
If you know of someone who we should interview, please reach out to Tuto Lopez Gonzalez at caalopezgo@gmail.com or Todd Edwards at toddedwards@ohioctm.org.