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A good deal of math's power lies in the problems to which it is applied.
What do we tell students about what math is good for when we select problems?
A journal article got me thinking about that this week. (Cover article in NCTM's MTLT, you can look it up, there's a paywall, you probably know someone who can find you a pdf)
A problem about gender and marriage was critiqued from a framework of discomfort. White people's discomfort. Which is really a trash framework.
A better framework is harm. There's a lot of harm in teaching a problem about a sultan's harem. Right now, I'm thinking about the harm to mathematics.
This kind of thing tells kids that math doesn't care about humanity, only about the underlying logical structure. And lots of super creative people who care deeply about their own and others' humanity get that message and come to understand that mathematics is not for them.
@DrEugeniaCheng writes about this eloquently and from a first person point of view in her new book "x+y", which you should 100% buy and read.
Yesterday's news put these concerns in a spotlight for me.
A thing I have noticed in my adventures in #vehiclechat is that a concern for precise definition, categorization, and the ensuing logic is a thing that math shares with the law.
Yesterday we heard a legal argument that obscured humanity and proceeded by a nearly mathematical logic. Put together the axioms of a drug money raid, stand your ground laws, and absolute authority, and this is what you get.
I don't have a hopeful note to end on, friends. I can only restate that a good deal of math's power lies in the problems to which it is applied.
Let's apply it to problems that matter, and that invite people in. Let's question whether math should apply at all from time to time. Let's question premises. Let's do better.
Let's get uncomfortable.
Let's get uncomfortable.
The foregoing represents where I am on my learning journey, by the way. I've learned from and with many. Notable in this thread are learnings from @RG1gal @Maestra_Rocha @LBmathemagician @DingleTeach and probably a bunch of others. I'm grateful to all.
(It seems also important to note that my citing these people does not imply their endorsement of my interpretations.)
