Teaching Math for a Better America - Essay Example

Teaching Math for a Better America (TMBA A Roadmap for Social Transformation Teaching Math for a Better America (TMBA) This paper gives a roadmap of a transformational change effort I plan to initiate at my school by using my teaching of math as a tool for educational and social reform. Need for Change As a mathematics teacher in an inner city school in Hawaii, how can I be a change agent My answer is to change the way I motivate my students so they learn to love math and use that as a starting point to make a difference in their lives, families, and communities. Many students hate math for the wrong reasons. Even some co-teachers feel the same way, and this attitude influences their students and mine. This has to change because if people see math beyond what makes it difficult, and begin to appreciate all the subject has to offer, a new world of possibilities opens up that can give meaning to the lives of so many. This is the ultimate goal of my program, Teaching Math for a Better America (TMBA).. Math requires mental discipline and order, and teaches us to look beyond the obvious so our minds reach the abstract. Math as a mental exercise helps us understand and appreciate what we cannot see: great ideas such as good and justice, equality and freedom, nothingness and the infinite. Math helps us appreciate music, tempo, and rhythm, aspects of art that reflect order and proportion in life, nature, and the universe. With abstraction and order come the ultimate possibility of grasping the existence of the spiritual and the divine. I want to use math, and teaching math according to the TMBA principles I would develop, as the focal point of a transformational change in my school, in the way we teach and motivate students, and how we look at our work. Math made it easy for the human mind to handle the great calculations that have transformed our knowledge of the universe. It can also be the agent that would help transform America and the world and bring to learning, teaching, and working the spiritual meaning it sorely needs. Causes of Change The graduate course in education has made me realize that, more than ever, teaching is hard work, and not just because of lesson plans, tests, coping with behavioral problems, and the need to counsel students (Glatthorn, 1999). Teaching is hard work because it is the process of forming the human mind and the human spirit. This insight dawned on me as I went through the course on ethics and justice and saw a deeper meaning in what we do. Most teachers do not see beyond the formal side of teaching and education. Many of us seem to have lost the love and appreciation for our calling as teachers that demand from us a life of sacrifice and dedication. Our schools have become knowledge factories that numbly turn out thousands of minds each year with efficiency. But are we effective I doubt it. Our educational system is producing geniuses without hearts, humans without a conscience and a sense of justice and ethics who later on become scientists, politicians, and businessmen, no doubt great men and women all, who enrich our nation's material riches but who in turn take away our humanity and lay the seeds of our civilization's destruction. This has to end, and I hope to contribute my share in this effort. What makes this call for change urgent is the type of students we have: inner city kids, products of broken homes with drug-crazed or single parents that pass on to their offspring the miserable lives they were dealt and against which they never fought back. Sure, there were a few in our community who succeeded out of sheer determination, or luck, but these were more the exception than the rule. I think it is time to turn this around. We have to bring back a sense of the sublime in the lives of our students and our teachers. Our nation was created out of a strong sense of these same values, and if we want to continue being great, we need to regain that sense. Resistance to Change What I am proposing is not merely incremental, step-by-step change, but something radical and transformational (Evans, 1996). I expect it to be controversial because this type of change is unpopular, uncomfortable, and requires doing something against what most people think is our human nature but in reality is not. Injecting a spiritual dimension into the change effort seems like a farfetched possibility, more so in a subject like math. I realized that my subject - Mathematics - is the perfect platform to begin teaching my students, their parents, and our teachers about ethics, justice and peace. One of the problems in society is the rejection of these two notions that have a tremendous impact on so many lives. Math can be a powerful instrument to remind young minds that these notions - ethics and justice, right and wrong - are important because they act like glue to keep our civilization together. One could imagine what happens (in fact we see it now) when people say there are no absolute norms that guide our notions of ethics and justice, that what is right and just depends purely on one's personal viewpoint and a request to respect each other's opinion. The result would be chaos, the opposite of peace. Apply this to math and the problems are tremendous: how can I get the exact change from the cashier, or how can people do business, or how can we agree on greater things if we cannot even agree that 1 + 1 = 2 A model of ethics and justice that is purely self-serving will get us nowhere. Change meets resistance for the same reasons, because it demands having to remove certain notions that we think is right despite countless evidences to the contrary. Change is difficult at the personal level and more so at the institutional, school, and higher levels that if one gets easily discouraged, change would be impossible (Evans, 1996). I expect to face resistance at all levels: personal, student, parents, colleagues, and government bureaucrats who may find my techniques too radical or idealistic. I have to contend with confusion, laziness, skepticism, and discouragement, all of which are forms of active and passive resistance that can come from anyone. I can minimize resistance by involving those who would be affected (Weick et al., 1999). As I make my plan of action, I would dialogue with the others and consider their concerns, include their inputs and ideas, make them part of the plan where possible, and get their commitment to support me. The most challenging, I know, is to motivate my students that what I am about to do is good for them, but I learned several techniques that would help, such as developing caring classrooms (Noddings, 1992) and deepening my connection with the spiritual yearnings of co-teachers and students (Kessler, 2000). Appealing to the heart and goodness found in each one is a breakthrough I need. Discovering the good in each one, rather than focusing on their criticisms and objections, would be the right direction to take in this change process. Benefits and Outcomes of Change Achieving my goal of teaching math and helping students have a deeper appreciation for math and make them aware of their spiritual yearnings would benefit many people. I would be a better math teacher, and my students would develop math skills and deepen their moral and ethical values. Their families would benefit because the students' good example and motivation. My co-teachers would learn too. Our school can be a center of excellence, in math and other subjects as well. TMBA is my legacy to the education of future students. Processes of Change As Palmer (1998) argued, the starting point of change is the integrity and identity of the teacher. Do I really want to do this and am I doing it for the right reasons My answer is yes, I want to do this, and the reasons for doing so are right: to improve education, to help my students become better persons, to help my colleagues do a better job, and to help the school and other students who are not my own to change their lives (Mechmann, 2000). I can succeed if I focus on the goal and get others to unfreeze, move, and refreeze as Lewin (1951) suggested. Enlightened by a deeper appreciation for ethics and justice, I now see success not as something measured by material wealth, fame, and power alone, but by how much we grow and mature as a person. Making incremental first-order changes would not be enough. If I fail to transform my students from within, many would never survive in the real world. Raised in dysfunctional homes, faced with temptations and challenges, lacking the motivation to succeed in the absence of role models to admire, and faced each day by hopelessness and fear of the future, many students are emotionally and intellectually handicapped. Not addressing this handicap is a reason for the absence of inner peace. They can benefit only from a second-order change, more radical in nature and systemic in impact (Evans, 1996). TMBA will not just to turn out math wizards lacking in social skills. It would turn out good persons who can use math to solve everyday problems, use their success as a motive to do well in other subjects, and transform their inner selves and aim higher in life so they make a personal decision to do better than their parents. In the process, they would find meaning and purpose in their lives and help others do the same. Just improving my teaching efficiency and effectiveness in what I do would not be enough. Justice demands that I give each of my students what is due, and as a teacher my starting point is doing well what I love doing: teaching math. Ethics means to do the right thing and to help others do what is right. Math, a precise science, is a good way to teach others about justice and ethics using the notions of exactness (in giving what is due and doing what is right) and the absolute (1 + 1 = 2 and 1 + 1 = 3 cannot be both right). However, in its precision lies a danger. I do not want to turn out heartless beasts lacking the flexibility to live in society. Just because a friend thinks 1+1=3 doesn't mean she stops being your friend. I want students to learn how to find joy in diversity and who find it a challenge to convince a friend, no matter how long it takes, to accept the right answer. Personnel Involved Like a stone thrown into a pond that creates concentric ripples that grow and reach every corner, my plan would evolve and develop over time. I would begin with myself, and then start getting the cooperation of other teachers in the school, starting with those who are my friends. In third place are the parents, and next the school's administration. If I can convince our Principal to make my experiences known to the other subject area teachers, we could draft a plan that would involve the whole school, district, and perhaps our whole State. Unless the support of our department heads, other school managers, and the staff is secured, change would be difficult or even impossible. Change would not happen overnight, but I hope to see some measurable results from these efforts in three years. Conclusion I am a teacher and am proud to be one. I not only form minds, but also hearts and souls. I have gained a deeper insight into the nature of my teaching vocation from this course and have learned to look beyond the numbers, programs, tests, and grades and decided to look closer - at myself, my students and colleagues, and into our hearts. I want to form persons using my love for teaching mathematics as my starting point. I have looked beyond test scores and the materialistic measures of success and realized that I need to make each student a better person who can survive in life, open to change and willing to be agents of change. My TMBA program would be my modest contribution to improve the quality of my teaching, the quality of education in our school, and the types of people we will turn out in society. In order to accomplish this, I would seek the cooperation of as many people as possible so that I can share with others what I have learned, get them to form caring classrooms, and to hopefully make my school a caring community. Reference List Evans, R. (1996). The human side of school change: Reform, resistance, and the real-life problems of innovations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Glatthorn, A. (1999). Performance standards & authentic teaching. New York: Eye on Education. Kessler, R. (2000). The soul of education: Helping students find connection, compassion, and character at school. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. New York: Harper Row. Mechmann, E.T. (2000). God, society and the human person: The basics of Catholic social teaching. Canfield, OH: Alba House. Noddings, N. (1992). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to education. New York: Teachers College. Palmer, P.J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Weick, K. E. and Quinn, R. E. (1999). Organisational change and development. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 361-86. Read More