 Calculating Controversy
It may seem unconventional to discuss integers and inequality in the same lesson, but a new book says it’s a great strategy for simultaneously teaching math and social justice. The book, Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers, is the latest brainchild of the Wisconsin-based organization, Rethinking Schools. Rather than succumbing to the fill-in-the-blanks style of learning brought about by No Child Left Behind’s emphasis on standardized testing, the new text takes a different approach by combining standard math subjects like ratios and geometry with pressing social issues. Chapters like “Home Buying While Brown or Black” and “Sweatshop Accounting” deal with sexism, class discrimination, and other societal ills. “Students can recognize the power of mathematics as an essential analytical tool to understand and potentially change the world, rather than merely regarding math as a collection of disconnected rules to be rotely memorized and regurgitated,” editors Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson say.
—Daniel Moise
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