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Math that Matters

    I believe that Math can be driven by social and environmental changes and justices. Also, I think it is entirely up to the pedagogue to decide whether to touch on the outside factors that are related to Math, or to just teach the basics. I think what the writer tries to do is to move away from the traditional lectures, regular and standard ways of teaching Math and tries to introduce real life situations in math to make it more practical and interesting. 

I think the author’s intention is, to show teachers that there are more in teaching Math than what everyone sees on the surface. Math teachers can be incorporating the outside world to Math while teaching in the classrooms; that there are always options in bringing social awareness into their teaching. He also supports his ideas by brining some examples in his book.

Even thought, it might be a bit harder to incorporate social justice into teaching,  in secondary Math classrooms the topics are more suitable for secondary school students than the middle ones. The older students, will have better understating of these topics and better critical analysis. Whereas for the younger ones, some of the topics are too emotional and hard to focus on.

I believe that Math can be connected to social studies, history and nearly anything. For instance, numbers are concrete facts; so, cost, money related topics are very practical things students can relate to their lives and make better financial choices. Calculus, probability…and some other good topics in Math are great to influence students and have long-term effects on their lives.


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