Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Math and Social Justice! No No! Recently, I read a report in a national magazine on income levels of different groups of people in the US. The report especially featured income differences between males, females and different ethnic groups. Some of the statistics were very disturbing. For example, women holding the same job as men with same number of years in the job made considerably less money in most of the states. Differences between ethnic groups were even more disturbing. I decided to use these data in my math class with my 5th graders in a lesson on graphing. The purpose was for the students to be able to interpret graphs and create graphs using the information provided. Students enjoyed the lesson and learned some social justice lessons. Apparently a lot of my students talked to their parents about what they had learned in class when they went home. I received notes from about 10 parents the next day simply indicating that what I taught in my math class would lead to hatred among my students and that I should not be wasting their children's valuable time. Rather, they suggested, I should teach math with no controversial materials. I completely disagree with them and I plan to use similar materials in my other courses as well. However, my principals asked me to send an explanation to those parents. I know my explanation will not stop the complaints. How should I go about this potentially long battle? Or should I take the short cut simply remove such content from my lessons? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I personally love the idea of bringing social issues into math classes and making math matter "more" to our students. What I would have done to ease into an activity like that is start from the beginning of the school year introducing them to those types of exercises. I would pick various issues, less controversial than the socio-economic status of ethnic groups and sexes in America. I would start with statistics and graphs on peach and peanut production in Georgia. Afterwards, I would introduce them to income earning potential with each level of education. Having students engage in these exercises often will cause them to engage in conversations at home. Therefore, when introducing the more controversial topics, the concept of analyzing these issues mathematically will not be such a shock. If the topic does stir some emotional issues, a teacher would have a stronger backing because social justice issues have been analyzed mathematically all year long. However, I have seen a situation that concerned me when a teacher tried to teach about a social injustice. A second year teacher was teaching about homelessness in her literature class. The administrative team at the school were not pleased with this lesson because they thought that the topic was insensitive because of the students that it was being taught to. The administrators gave her critical feedback on her evaluation because of this. The demographics of the students at the school were that of low socio-economic standing. I'm not quite sure in which way the lesson was approached. I never saw the teacher's lesson plans. However, what I can say is that I'm sure this teacher would not portray a homeless person negatively. If anything, empathy would be sub-curriculum to the curriculum. So where does a teacher feel safe in approaching controversial issues? Math would seem like a subject safe from controversy, but apparently not. Quite frankly, as a social studies teacher, I appreciate it. As a social studies teacher I have run into several students who were upset by the mere mention of Karl Marx in the textbooks. Social studies teachers have to tread lightly with controversial issues. I think the culture of political correctness has clashes with blatant honesty about our country. As a history teacher, I do not mind teaching about the "bad" and the "disgraceful" past that we have lived in American simply because it shows us how much we have grown and how hard America has fought for correctness. However, the "bad" past is often not welcome to all.