Math as a social literacy issue

Last night I enjoyed meeting the teachers in my son’s new middle school, Crosswinds. We were there for the Earth House open house. One of Alex’s teachers, Mr. Colon, talked about how he wanted to use math to help open up social realities for students as well. One of his examples included exploring the statistics in a recent newspaper article about racial profiling in the Cities. Then, this morning, as I’m searching the web looking for something entirely different, I came upon The Algebra Project, which is an attempt to fuse civil rights and math education. I’m inspired, yet again, by how teaching can be intimately connected with justice issues.