Political Math
SO...which math problem was political?
A. Naked Math
- Math with no context
- Prepares students to accept policy decisions that are based on crunching numbers (as if we don't need to concern ourselves with the actual bodies behind those numbers).
- Seems as if mathematics is not involved in morals, values, culture, ethics, etc.
- Asks students to privilege (i.e. put first) a form of processing information void of any connection to real world contexts.
- Secondly, math is held in such high esteem in the nation and world (seen as a higher form of thinking/makes you smart), what we ask students to do in math class is in some ways telling them what it means to be smart/intellectual.
- So, thinking abstractly (just variables, no connection to life) is what we are saying is valued in our society.
- Therefore, those who are smart know how to think this way.
- Those who are not, cannot.
B. Consumerism
- This question feeds into a privileging of citizens as consumers.
- There is no question that asks students to question why potato chips are cheaper than apples, or...
- Consider that some people have the means to purchase a teddy bear without thinking, while others would have to necessarily consider food first/always.
- The question focuses on how much (quantity not quality) she can purchase.
- This kind of problem with consumerism being tied to mathematics is very common and never questioned.
- Same kind of thing as when we talk about shooting rockets and tracing their trajectories (think parabolic curves and quadratic equations).
- No one questions whether/why we would shoot rockets in the first place, but it prepares citizens to not question that we would use mathematics to support warfare. (see next question)
C. Human Life vs...?
- Makes apparent the decisions we make about human life when we as a nation choose to purchase stealth bombers instead of funding wide scale education.
Link to Dr. Gutierrez' article for more info.