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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 would explain to the parents that your reasoning for using the data was to make the material meaningful to the students. Making Math meaningful is the best way to engage students and help them learn. In the future, I would provide the explanation in a parent letter at the beginning of the year that the parents must sign. I would also explain to students that we should not have ill feelings toward one another in our class because the students are not to blame for the statistics. We should only use the data to become aware of changes that need to be made in the future. |
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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: |
| Rated On: June 12, 2014 6:13 pm |
| Rated By: wendy burns |
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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: Great post! |
| Rated On: July 10, 2015 2:28 am |
| Rated By: RaMevy |
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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! Math was never a subject that I enjoyed, but if I had statistics and data I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I think that all of your ideas are great from having to get a letter signed, to making sure that students understand to not feel negatively towards anyone after learning something new. I think it is important for the students to understand things aswell as learning. Kids are the future, so why not teach them whats right? |
| Rated On: October 18, 2015 3:52 am |
| Rated By: yseHug |
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