The MSL Team

In 1958, while still a graduate student and teaching Assistant in the MIT mathematics department, Herb Gross was recruited to be the founding math department chairperson at Corning Community College (CCC). He remained at CCC for ten years during which time he became well known throughout the area as a speaker and educator. In 1959, he became Corning’s first education television instructor, offering a calculus course to gifted high school students in the Corning-Painted Post school district; and in 1967 he was the driving force behind the formation of the New York State Mathematics Association of Two Year Colleges (NYSMAYTC).

In 1968, the MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study (CAES) recruited him to teach "Calculus Revisited" to engineers and scientists who were returning to MIT for post-graduate study. The course was so popular that he was asked to develop a video version of the course. In 2010 MIT digitized the course and uploaded it on its OpenCourseWare website, where it has been viewed over 600,000 times.

In 1973, he returned to teaching, leaving MIT to become the founding math department chair at Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) in Boston MA. He continued being a strong advocate of the community colleges and in 1974 he founded and became the first president of the American Mathematics Association of Two year Colleges (AMATYC).

In 1978 the Volunteers of America in Hagerstown Maryland named him the nation’s outstanding educator. In 1986 the American Association of Community College Trustees named him the nation’s outstanding community college instructor. He remained at BHCC until his retirement in 2003.

Since then, he has devoted his professional life to helping elementary and middle school teachers achieve more success in having their students better internalize basic mathematics. To that end he has formed Math As A Second Language, (MSL) Inc. a 501 (c) 3 organization. MSL is constructing a new website, but currently all of his material is available free of charge on www.mathasasecondlanguage.com.

In May 2014, the State University of New York awarded him an honorary doctor of humane letters degree for his many contributions to math education at all levels.

During his 35 years in the classroom at the Charles S. Ashley School in New Bedford, Massachusetts, he taught math to students in the sixth and fifth grades. Math has always been a challenging area for teachers and students alike. With the emphasis on technology in today’s world, the need for science and math instruction continues to place a high demand on the teachers to educate their students in these areas. Rick began using computer technology (PowerPoint presentations) to motivate students to better understand arithmetic concepts in a non-threatening manner. “Taking the Fear out of Math” and making it a more comfortable learning experience proved to be highly successful in his classroom.

During his tenure as an elementary teacher, he was nominated for Massachusetts Teacher of the Year and Disney. Teacher of the Year. His biography appears in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers in 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2004-2005. He received the WBSM/Fun 107 Teacher of the Month (June, 2000) Award and the ABC6 and Dunkin' Donuts Salute to Teachers Award in December of 2000. He also received a Certificate of Commendation from the New Bedford School Committee

Since teaching workshops with Herb Gross and Judith Bender, he continues to develop materials (PowerPoint Presentations, Handouts, Task Cards, and Manipulatives ) that are aligned with the Common Core Standards) and focus on the arithmetic concepts of Math As A Second Language.