I saw this posted on someone's Facebook a few days ago. At a minimum, it's bizarre. There was an almost infinite supply of topics that could have been chosen as a basis for math questions.
1. I'm of African descent as well. 2. I'm happy it never happened to you. It happened a few times to me and it was a constant thing for my father (who is African-American). My mother and I dealt with anti-immigrant sentiments as well (another story) 3. LOL 4. Public education is the very best thing that's happened to freed black americans ever? I disagree....I say that the gains made in the american civil rights movement were the best things that happened to black ppl period (because it benefited more than just afro-americans) in the united states. Do you know anything about african american history besides the basics?
Critical thinking skills is important, but if you want to teach a kid arithmetic then stick to arithmetic. Mixing in social issues is a distraction to the task at hand.
Mixing in social issues helps teach kids WHY math is important, which makes it much more likely that it's going to click with them.
Math is important primarily for science, not social issues. Why not use scientific examples to illustrate the utility of math instead? Social issues are complicated and pull in a lot of subjective components into the picture. The goal isn't to muddle up the lesson with discussions of politics and race.
