APPLYING MATHEMATICAL BRILLIANCE TO THE 'STAND YOUR GROUND' ECONOMIC BOYCOTT

Practical mathematical applications Practical mathematical applications go well beyond the 3, fairly decent ones, identified as "culturally relevant pedagogy," by their 3 proponents in their chapter, "Culturally Relevant, Cognitively Demanding Mathematics Tasks" in THE BRILLIANCE OF BLACK CHILDREN IN MATHEMATICS (2013), edited by Jacqueline Leonard and Danny B. Martin. This book's release coincides with the call for an economic boycott of Florida, and of any state with "Stand Your Ground" laws, 30 by last count, in the wake of George Zimmerman's acquittal, this month, for the cold-blooded murder of 17-year Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed, in Sanford, Florida. The 3 culturally relevant pedagogical propositions advanced by the authors are: "1. Academic success 2. Cultural competence and 3. The ability to critique the existing social order (Ladson-Billings, 1994)." P. 128. The absence of how math students might "create" alternatives to those few economic options available to them and to the majority of their race, by the "critiqued social order," alarmed me, into and of itself. To their credit, and to hers, the chapter's authors--Lou Edward Matthews, Shelly M. Jones, and Yolanda A. Parker--tacitly acknowledge their chapter's deficiencies by referencing one of the editors' angst. They write: "Leonard (2008) contends that while the literature shows a critical need to use culturally relevant pedagogy, there are yet scarce examples of how culture can be connected to mathematics pedagogy." P.131 One good way to "connect" culture to pedagogy is to instill mathematical skills that will specifically enable the black students to come up with mathematical resolutions/solutions to their own economic estrangement in the land of their birth, creatively, constructively, and permanently. Apply those brilliant mathematical minds in black children to practical work, and watch miracles unfold!