[RSCT] Math ideas / organizing?

[Peter Henry]

Hello,

I am wondering how to help my high school algebra 1 students motivate themselves to get involved more, and I have been reading "Radical Equations" by Robert Moses over Xmas break. Moses was active during the voter registration days in the 60s in the South, and he took his focus on community organizing to teaching algebra in middle school through the Algebra Project. Why algebra? Because he feels it is a "gatekeeper" - that once students have mastered it they are on the way to higher math in high school and are on the path to college. Students who don't have early access to algebra are shortchanged and disempowered.

Various places around the country have adopted his methods - starting in Cambridge, Atlanta, Chicago and branching out to the Delta in Mississippi and other places as well.

I like the idea of students and their community organizing to focus on getting a better education for themselves but I am wondering if it's applicable in the environment I'm teaching in, and how to promote this. After all, the Algebra Project requires commitment from the entire community (school district, individual schools, teachers within the schools, students, their parents, administration, ...) and all I am is one teacher in an alternative school, where students come and go. Thanks to an active parent, we did start a PTA, the first time in memory for this school, and maybe that is one place to start. But the bulk of the motivation needs to come from the students and I don't know how to go in that direction.

I feel strongly that math education is a way students can empower themselves, but the question is, do my students feel this way? Mostly not, I fear. And any words or persuasion from me could be catalogued as "teacher talk." - what else am I going to tell them, that math is useless?

How can I get them to value math literacy enough so they feel it's worth while to do it well, and where they rather than I become the driver of what they want (while I become the supplier or facilitator)?

I cannot "community organize" my math class overnight a la hollywood and turn it into a magically functional place but my kids are NOT shy about asking for what they think is their due, even if they are inconsistent and lack a sense of relative importance. 

Any ideas, especially from people teaching in the Seattle area, are most welcome!

Peter Henry
South Lake H.S.
Seattle, WA
pmhenry at seattleschools.org
phenry at u.washington.edu


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