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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 see no problem in what you are implementing in your classroom. Students need to be socially aware of what is occurring in this world. We should not hide things from our children. We need to be proactive and teach them that the real world isn't equal even though in a perfect world we want to believe it. I feel like when you are real with students they appreciate the lesson more, and they are more engaged in the learning process because it is a real world issue. When students get a certain age, they don't want to hear about how great the Disney channel is. Most students want to be aware of what is going on around. I found that students in high school rarely watch the news. I feel as if we introduced students to the importance of current events early, they will be more in tune with what is going on around them. I think that as a teacher you should keep doing what you are doing. If parents are that worried about what their children are learning when it comes to the real world, they will arrange a meeting with you. |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: I agree with every aspect. |
| Rated On: October 17, 2014 6:08 pm |
| Rated By: TuBuJy |
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Rating
| The suggested solution is respectful of the individual (student) |
Yes
|
| The suggested solution is relevant to the case |
Yes
|
| The suggested solution is reasonable (easy) for the teacher to implement |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is likely to solve the problem/issue |
Yes
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| The suggested solution is original |
Yes
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| Comments: Great post! |
| Rated On: July 10, 2015 2:29 am |
| Rated By: RaMevy |
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