Stocker

I acknowledge that today in my young adulthood I have more skills and confidence than I even know how to deal with and use efficiently, but a lot of this cultural and intellectual capital was not granted to me at birth and a lot of the knowledge that I use now is due to my interest and engagement with the world in a mathematical way. My aim as a secondary teacher is to teach mathematics as a means of acquiring autonomy, and to give my students access to a wider perception of the world as to make choices that will bring them to places of power and comfort based on their individual needs and wants. In particular, to use that power to challenge and question the world and it's social structures with logical justifications, ideally as a means of making it more equitable. Of course, each student is encouraged to use their aptitudes, passions, and energy in any way that they see will be an addition to their livelihood.
I imagine this textbook is an attempt at providing curricular resources for a hopeful emerging of the popular idea that mathematics, along with all other subjects at school, should be used as a means of empowering students to engage with the social structures around them and think critically about how to live in the world. I agree with a lot of the points raised in the introduction and of particular note the choice to use a quote from "Nel Noddings", quite possibly the Nel who questions the use of everything, at the beginning of the chapter;
 

I think there are clear relationships between logic, philosophy, sociology, and mathematics. These connections pose questions like why things work, how do we fix things, and where should I start? Questions of this sort are relative and each individual encounters different problems and challenges in the real world and engages with them relative to each of these unique experiences. The questions are common no matter how different the experiences, and thus providing opportunities for students' minds to reflect and think critically about the world in these ways is extremely important in the goal of "producing" intelligent and creative children. I imagine mathematics as a discipline that tries to model the world in a systematic way through defining rules from playing off of physical intuition and logic. When a student is doing mathematics the goal should be that they come to see the pieces in that model, why they work, and how it can perhaps be done "better" or more "efficiently" (and why it is important to define these parameters in a systematic or arbitrary way).

This textbook seems to provide concrete ways in which teachers teach concepts of social justice in their classrooms. I think it is certainly interesting to explore lessons of this sort, and it is becoming more welcome with the emergence of the new curriculum. I look forward to promoting my students to use their knowledge and skills to shake things up and make the world more fun.