(1) Many have been glued to the news for the #election results. We’ve been inundated with #math: finding the difference between big-ish numbers, calculating percentages, evaluating various contingencies. (for this thread, mostly, when i say ‘math,’ i mean K-12 math)

(2) For some, this mathy place is familiar, even homey. For others, maybe most, it brings on math #anxiety , reminds them of feeling excluded, or of their dislike for math. We get threads (like this super generous example) https://twitter.com/JuliaFierro/status/1324459254242140160?s=20

3) Emerging hashtags like
#numbersdontlie
#mathdoesntlie spring up,
can't beat math or “math is not a four letter word”

(Also what springs up are the sports metaphors but that’s for another thread, tho conceptually related)

4) #Math is political. It has been all along but super visible this week. K-12 math: we use it for taxes, for elections, for administration (of prisons, of cities, of vote counting, of land). We use it for buying & selling, you know, cellphones, computers, AK-47s, and what not.

5) Insiders use math to treat themselves whilst tricking others.

Ex: Mortgage scams, tax cuts for the rich and super-rich, the state-run lotteries for goodness sakes, accountability & schooling takeover by standardized tests for everyone but private schools & MORE

6) I know, I know, people use math to develop vaccines, to invent new technologies, to build beautiful things, and to innovate in all kinds of directions. That too. OF COURSE. But nonetheless, math is our language of administration, commerce, competition, and control.

7) Our vision is that young people learn not just how to “do the math” but also how to use that math to make their world better. That’s one key part of #takebackmath. Call it math for #socialjustice, math for people, math for our planet.

8) Some don't like my words. They will defend math, as if it itself is living and breathing, carries a heart, bears a soul, has parents and siblings and children. No, they will say, math is neutral and objective. They'll say 2+2=4 & posture as if logic is on the stand. It's not.

9) They’ll say they don’t want to drive bridges designed by our students and they’ll threaten me with violent-laced wishes that I visit gynecologists (IKR!) who haven’t been properly trained, AS IF that is being suggested. Or they do the racist pot calling the kettle black thing

10) A second part of #takebackmath , though, is about broadening the kinds of things that we mathematize (and here I guess I’m talking to mathematicians, too). We clearly have developed thick mathematical machinery around administration, compliance, & control.

11) What could happen if we valued and therefore mathematized other kinds of things - such as kindness, solidarity, beauty, pain & suffering, love, joy, humor for example

(h/t @RG1gal and others)

12) Have y’all noticed this week how we use math to determine and communicate election winners,

BUT THEN,

joy about the outcome is expressed

with music or movement or togetherness, and not with math?

13) (p.s. If you're a teacher and jazzed about these ideas,
find others to collaborate with,
reach out,
and chime in here with resources that you think others might benefit from

#takebackmath

14) I didn't summarize the thread, if anyone is still read this far, 14 tweets in. It's going to be a hard stretch over the coming months: it's going to require that we amp up our generosity, kindness, compassion, love & care for one another. peace out.
#takebackmath