Curriculum as Numeracy

At the beginning of the reading, Leroy Little Bear (2000) states that colonialism "tries to maintain a singular social order by means of force and law, suppressing the diversity of human worldviews. ... Typically, this proposition creates oppression and discrimination" (p. 77). Think back on your experiences of the teaching and learning of mathematics -- were there aspects of it that were oppressive and/or discriminating for you or other students?

My experiences in math as a student were not great. I didn’t understand math as well as the other students in my class and felt stupid because I was often behind. When I began my pre-internship, I had the opportunity to teach math and found that I was focusing mores on the students that were not understanding, the students who the teacher told me would not understand. I found that those students were so grateful that I took time to further teach them and found that they were struggling because they didn’t understand concepts taught even before this one... which makes math very hard. When I was a student, the children that didn’t understand just didn’t understand which continued in a cycle until they finished math in high school.