Finally, a math textbook for the Jay Bennish-types.
From the Introduction:
When teachers weave social justice into the math curriculum and promote social justice math “across the curriculum,” students’ understanding of important social matters deepens. When teachers use data on sweatshop wages to teach accounting to high school students or multi-digit multiplication to upper-elementary students, students can learn math, but they can also learn something about the lives of people in various parts of the world and the relationship between the things we consume and their living conditions.
Sample chapters from the Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. “Teaching Math Across the Curriculum”
by Bob Peterson
Teaching Suggestions:
Disparities in Wealth Cartoon
Activity Box: No-TV Week Math
Driving While Black or Brown: A Math Project About Racial Profiling
Chapter 2. “Reading the World with Math”
by Marilyn Frankenstein
Teaching Suggestions:
The War in Iraq Boondocks Cartoon
Activity Box: Using Math to Take a Critical Look at How the Unemployment Rate Is Determined
The War in Iraq: How Much Does It Cost?
Chapter 3. “Race, Retrenchment, and the Reform of School Mathematics”
by William F. Tate
Teaching Suggestions:
Environmental Hazards:
Is Environmental Racism Real?
FYI: No chapters in “Rethinking Mathematics” discuss taxes, interest rates, inflation, or any other valuable economic concept. Instead, there are chapters that talk about AIDS, childhood obesity, and the “Unequal Distribution of U.S. Wealth.”
Hat tip: Joanne Jacobs
