Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights |  | Authors: Robert P. Moses, Charles E. Cobb Jr
Publisher: Beacon Press
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 777871
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0807031267
Dewey Decimal Number: 512.071073
EAN: 9780807031261
ASIN: 0807031267
Publication Date: January 18, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
At a time when popular solutions to the educational plight of poor children of color are imposed from the outside-national standards, high-stakes tests, charismatic individual saviors-the acclaimed Algebra Project and its founder, Robert Moses, offer a vision of school reform based in the power of communities.
Begun in 1982, the Algebra Project is transforming math education in twenty-five cities. Founded on the belief that math-science literacy is a prerequisite for full citizenship in society, the Project works with entire communities-parents, teachers, and especially students-to create a culture of literacy around algebra, a crucial stepping-stone to college math and opportunity.
Telling the story of this remarkable program, Robert Moses draws on lessons from the 1960s Southern voter registration he famously helped organize: "Everyone said sharecroppers didn't want to vote. It wasn't until we got them demanding to vote that we got attention. Today, when kids are falling wholesale through the cracks, people say they don't want to learn. We have to get the kids themselves to demand what everyone says they don't want."
We see the Algebra Project organizing community by community. Older kids serve as coaches for younger students and build a self-sustained tradition of leadership. Teachers use innovative techniques. And we see the remarkable success stories of schools like the predominately poor Hart School in Bessemer, Alabama, which outscored the city's middle-class flagship school in just three years.
Radical Equations provides a model for anyone looking for a community-based solution to the problems of our disadvantaged schools.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Great Idea - Excellent Book August 8, 2009
P. Haney (Dallas, Texas)
As part of a Master's program, I was given the option to read several books for a project and selected this one. I was not disappointed, and this book was probably the best one I read all summer. Robert Moses explains his role in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and the Algebra Project movement of today with vivid detail. He makes his points clearly, and instead of simply describing the problems he presents solutions that are so logical you will want to get involved. For any educator or advocate, this book is a must read.
thanks January 12, 2007
Tamisha L. Simpson (Boston, MA USA)
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Thanks for great service and speedy delivery! The book is in excellent condition.
A Radical Voice Speaks Up February 25, 2005
Rob Robinson (Washington, D.C.)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
"That's what we learned in Mississippi, that it is getting people at the bottom to make demands, on themselves first, then on the system, that leads to some of the most important changes. They have to find their voice."
Robert Moses is a brilliant mathematician, and a little bit of a seer, who sets himself the task of defining his life in terms that constitute a radical equation.
Moses relates his personal history in the movement that broke the back of segregation and Jim Crow in the South. He connects the young SNCC field secretaries, who, with guidance from the older local organizers like Amzie Moore and Fannie Lou Hamer helped black communities take charge of their own destinies. And, he demonstrates how economic factors have made math illiteracy the functional equivalent of political disenfranchisement that threatens future generations of black youth with a bondage no less frightening.
Moses' vision is profound rather than simple. Charles Cobb, Jr. does an artful job of helping Moses find a voice capable of uttering the insights of a lifetime of formidable accomplishment. Particularly since, as Moses admits, " reaching out to probe into really personal things isn't a particularly strong point of mine."
Caveat emptor: this is not just a ripping memoir of the Southern civil rights movement. It is that, but Moses is a demanding teacher. He makes his audience come to grips with and think about the dehumanizing legacies of the "isms" he's spent a lifetime combating in Africa as well as America. This may put off some readers, as it clearly did some reviewers. Too bad. Those who do the math with Bob Moses will learn from their struggle -- and be thankful for his.
An Important Civil Right - Math Literacy January 13, 2002
watzizname (Murfreesboro, Tennessee)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
Robert P. Moses, a leader of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, has (correctly) reached the conclusion that Math literacy is, in these times and for the predictable future, a prerequisite for first-class citizenship, and since he still wants everyone to be a first-class citizen (and rightly so) he has embarked on a campaign to enable every child to be mathematically literate, and he has enjoyed a considerable degree of success. There is still a long way to go; his program (or more accurately, the program developed by Moses and his associates and the children, parents, and teachers they have worked with) has so far been adopted only by a small minority of the schools, but in those schools where it is in place, math achievement has increased significantly, and (SURPRISE!) reading scores have also improved significantly.
THIS IS A RESULT THAT EVERY TEACHER AND EVERY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR SHOULD KNOW ABOUT! THIS BOOK SHOULD BE IN EVERY SCHOOL LIBRARY!
I have only one small carp with this book. On page 7 is the statement: "The result was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the world's first programmable computer. I asked three Afro-American students, ages 15-21, what was the world's first programmable computer, and not one of them mentioned ENIAC. Rather, they all replied that the first programmable computer was the Zuse Z3. They were all correct. The Z3, disigned and built by Konrad Zuse in Germany, and operational in 1939, approximately 2 years before ENIAC, was the world's first programmable computer. Fortunately, the German High Command didn't take Zuse and his computer seriously.
However, the error is understandable. Most textbooks on the subject in America incorrectly credit ENIAC with being first (I would expect that few if any German texts fail to give credit where it belongs.) Moses was probably innocently repeating what he had been taught at Harvard. And in any case, this one minor error is but a very minor blemish on a very relevant and valuable book. If you are a parent of school-age children, you should get this book, and then get together with other parents and with your children to demand that your school adopt the Algebra Project curriculum. Your children deserve the best education possible, and that means using the Algebra Project curriculum. Also, buy and read Victory in Our Schools: We Can Give Our Children Excellent Public Education, by John Stanford. The two books complement each other.
watziznaym@gmail.com
Good argument that math literacy is the next civil right December 23, 2001
Auren Hoffman (San Francisco, CA United States)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a very good book on how math literacy is the next civil right. The book discusses the Algebra Project, an organization founded by 1960's civil rights leader Bob Moses, to teach algebra to kids in inner-cities and rural communities. The beginning of the book reads like Moses' autobiography about his years organizing in Mississippi. He then discusses how groups like the Jews, Koreans, and Chinese relied on math as the basis for their upward mobility. Moses' theory is that as the world becomes more and more focused on technology and innovation, math will have an even greater importance. Summation: Read this book -- it is very eye-opening.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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