Finding Your Voice

I was very interested to see Moses' piece "Algebra and Civil Rights" in our selection of readings this week. Obtaining my teaching certification in grades 7-12 mathematics, I did not expect to see the word "algebra" appear in the title of anything we would read in a literacy class. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in Moses' piece.

Although I am striving to become a math teacher, it never occurred to me that a course in literacy would ever be a waste. Being critically literate in a language allows one to "powerfully navigate socially sanctioned language systems as they also attempt to speak the truth to power" (7) and "is essential to the redefining of the self and the transformation of oppressive social structures and relations of production" (5) according to Morrell. In my opinion, this applies to any topic, be it literature, science, history, economics, health, or mathematics.

I was very much in support of Moses' method of social uprising around a cause, garnering "active participation of some critical mass" (16), getting young people to find "their voice instead of being spoken for" (19), and "getting people at the bottom to make demands, on themselves first, then on the system" (20). This is how our country broke away from Britain. This is how slavery ended. This is how women won the right to vote. This is how discrimination is being broken down. By focusing on mathematics, I believe Moses is breaking one the tenants of his own argument: "finding their voice instead of being spoken for". I understand that economic access is a difficulty for people of color (5), and the detriment technology has been on the Black community (10), but why is mathematics necessarily the answer? Why is it not education as a whole? After Brown vs. Board of Education, blacks have the same rights as white to attend school, but do they really have "equal" access? Is math really the problem? Moses discusses that Blacks are not "tinkering in the garage, with the ambition of designing something better than Microsoft Windows" (10). I argue that a lot more is needed than math for that. Intuition, innovation, social skills, psychology, human-computer interaction, business sense, marketing, economics ... the list is endless that one needs to start a business. Why does this innovation necessarily need to be mathematical in nature? Why can't it be social? historical? philosophical? Overall, a well-rounded education opens the door for advancement into ANY field. Why limit the opportunity to just scientific jobs?

I understand Moses' premise that the jobs of the future will be more scientific, but as Moses said himself, blacks need to find their own voice to fight for their own cause. Telling them to fight for mathematically literacy is not allowing them to find their own voice. Telling them to fight for equal access to education as a whole is not even allowing them to find their own voice. Showing the black community the trends in the industry and the skills they will need for tomorrow will pique their interest, but they need to decide for themselves what they need to fight for in order to get their fair share of tomorrow's jobs.