Why is the world the way it is? Why are some people more successful than others? The answer is math. It is not always dumb luck or a coincidence that things happen for certain reasons. The documentary Counted Out, which was screened on the night of Tuesday, March 11 in Willcox Multipurpose Room, provided insight into math and how it’s taught which interested and captivated the attendees.
The primary argument was on America’s teaching of math where “it alienates people and makes them feel bad.” Bob Moses, a civil rights activist who the film is dedicated to, explained how Sputnik was an event that changed the paradigm of math education. He mentioned how at the time, math textbooks were written to be understood by experienced scientists and were given to schools, demonstrating the lack of understanding and America not prioritizing early education. Visual cues show students trapped in literal and figurative walls where if you can’t understand one field (i.e. statistics), you won’t understand the subsequent ideas (i.e. data science).
“I have a love-hate relationship with math,” says one former prisoner who was incarcerated at the age of 16 for a crime he committed yet realized his mistake in jail. When he was able to appeal to the judges, they refused his parole since they used the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions(COMPAS) processing system which labeled him a high risk to society despite his efforts to change. Statisticians and other journalists said programs, not just COMPAS, are biased against minorities since they have been at higher risk of incarceration historically. However, statistics don’t often feature individuals’ anecdotes and cover so much that they don’t see the whole picture. This is what made the prisoner’s story so powerful; he was viewed as another “glitch in the system” so to speak and had so much more to offer than what an algorithm said.
The documentary explains how Algebra is the framework for getting into various career fields and sadly, it’s the most failed math class which results in many having to retake it in college. One educator explains algebra is where “I give you the output, you give me the input.” In other words, the answer is already given to you. It’s a matter of working backward to find what plugs into the equation correctly. Also, people tend to keep the final result in mind whenever they do something (output). Plans (input) change due to various factors. If students don’t understand this idea, they won’t get through life.
There is an initiative known as Algebra Project INC based out of Miami, Florida which was founded by Bob Moses. It aims to provide hands-on experiences for underprivileged kids in the neighborhood. Teachers and their students will go out and do projects making them learn “on the job.” More information about the documentary’s production and distribution can be accessed here.
One student, Imer Hoxhaj, was asked about his thoughts on the documentary. “It’s interesting seeing how people assume math is tough and how they can’t get around it. It’s upsetting how they can’t do certain jobs since they don’t have a good math framework. My family hasn’t always known a lot of math and seeing them struggle, even across multiple generations, was shocking, especially after watching this film.”
An open discussion occurred following the film where educators and students analyzed the film. Lisa Fastenberg, the Mathematics Department Chair on the Pleasantville Campus, mentioned the limitations both students and educators could face despite being at a college. “There’s only so many hours that we get with each other in a week and students can only spend so much time studying due to all of the commitments they got. But we try to be as informative as possible and maximize the amount of time we get.”