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!) The fact that students went home to talk to their parents about their lessons is amazing. Students actually enjoyed what they learned that day in school and wanted to bring it to their parent's attention. In relating it to the real world this is a great way to embrace and begin to talk about future plans. Students need to understand what it takes to begin thinking about their future. Situations like these help them. I believe you should explain to parents the results to explaining this to the students. Allowing the parents to tell their feelings shows them that as a teacher you do care about what they think, but showing them that you are sticking to the curriculum allows their children to think creative and critically about life and the issues that surround their futures.