By Kasi Allen, posted April 25, 2016 –

We live in times of polarized politics, road rage, and extreme economic inequality—when seemingly every disagreement can quickly become colored with emotion. Here, math provides a powerful opportunity, especially for teenagers—to justify their ideas on the basis of indisputable facts, to see a problem from a different point of view, to make sense of someone else’s thinking, to come to the same solution via alternative paths, to create shared understanding. The ultimate beauty of a “math fight” is that there need not be only one winner.

Can the high school math class really be a place where students learn empathy? I believe it can. Even more, I think that mathematics is uniquely positioned to serve this critical role. Math can become the subject where students learn to respect the ideas and lives of others. The beauty is that it would require only some subtle shifts, small changes that teachers can make every day as they are ready and interested. The positive response of their students will be the fuel that keeps them going.

To begin, students need to know that there is always more than one path to a correct answer. Especially when given a complex task, each of us will see the problem differently, bringing a different set of skills and experiences to the work at hand. The more formulas and rules that students have at their disposal, the more they seem to need to be reminded of this variability of approach. To reinforce the message, teachers will want to move away from words like efficient and faster when describing a strategy and toward words like insightful and powerful.

As I have written earlier, investing in classroom culture makes all the difference. Students who know one another’s names and appreciate one another’s problem-solving styles treat each other respectfully. They value each other’s thinking. If students know that multiple pathways to an answer exist, then they begin to look for alternatives. As creativity and risk taking become the norm, students in turn become more passionate about their own ideas. They start to see the power of mathematics to impact their own lives as well as the lives of others. In this environment, empathy emerges as a by-product.

Teaching empathy in the math classroom helps us loosen our grip on some priorities—covering curriculum and being right—so that we can embrace the more important job of mathematically empowering every student. Kids do not remember what we “cover”—they remember the times that rocked their world, when we made them think differently about something.

Only days ago, I watched a new teacher deliver a high school geometry lesson on volume that involved climate change and ice melt. Students leaned in and engaged in the discussion as we would want for every child in every classroom. I have witnessed similar opportunities this school year, as when students explored issues of “minimum wage” to think about linear equations and “automobile depreciation” to think about exponential decay. Math can truly become something more for our students, if we let it.

KASI ALLEN, kasi@lclark.edu, has worked in mathematics education for nearly thirty years as a teacher, researcher, and scholar. For the last decade, she has served as a professor of mathematics education in Oregon, teaching math content and methods to preservice K–12 teachers. Kasi loves helping people of all ages experience the power of having their own mathematical ideas. She is a math activist who studies math trauma and promotes teaching mathematics for social justice.