Views from the Black of the Math Classroom

Which kind of mathematical work makes sense today? This question is broader than, “Which math skills will graduates need to be successful in today’s economy?” Rather it deals with mathematical ideas and problems a student ought to be able to navigate to be a full, functioning, and active global citizen. Undoubtedly, students today ought to have an understanding of energy sources and costs, infrastructure, wealth distribution, financial markets, and environmental issues such as global warming, over-fishing, and deforestation. They should be able to use mathematics to make thoughtful, informed decisions involving these problems. As well, at a time when we are inundated with vast amounts of information, students today ought to be able to understand and make judgments about statistical data. They should be able to ask questions about these data and to discern which are important. They should be able to make the connection between their personal finances and financial decisions, and those of their governments and other significant institutions. Furthermore, as members of a democracy, they should be able to use mathematics to push for more just and inclusive societies. Our current system emphasizes computational skill almost exclusively. Yet computational skill alone is not enough. Students must be able to define and solve problems, identify and represent mathematical relationships, reason logically, justify their solutions, and persist even in the face of complexity. Likewise, the work of mathematics teachers must center on the development of instructional practices that lead students to these kinds of understandings. Test preparation is not mathematics instruction for the twenty-first century.