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 would agree that you should share this data with your class. After talking to your principal and he or she backs you up by saying that you should simply offer an explanation to the parents. I think that offering an explanation will allow the parents to see where you were trying to go with your lesson. The sad thing is that reports like this are true and I believe that it is important to educate our students on real life. I do not agree that this type of learning will lead to hatred among your students. Yes children can be cruel but in my experience we as adults see differences more than children. I think that it is also important to have an open discussion with your students and get their takes on what was showed and how it was taught because they are the ones in the classroom.