[Maths-Education] Money counts..or money talks?

Mon, 20 Nov 2000 12:29:56 -0000

(Sorry for delayed reply: I read my Discussion Group emails only rarely.)

Peter: The BEAM materials do aggrandise money to the extent of producing =
BIG
mega-coins. I generally have a lot of time for BEAM products and the poin=
ts
Peter mentions :
> the issues of disadvantage, poverty, social       injustice,      usury=
,
etc. etc.
are more on Peter's agenda than on BEAM's agenda. I hope he will take it =
up.
(But see Tamara Bibby's email below.)

The other item from
>      "4 learning and maths year      20002" (never (never
>      heard of them myself).
has an obvious typo.

It comes from Maths Year 2000 and Channel 4 Learning and is called "Your
Family Counts" - part of the MY2000 Family Numeracy Campaign. Peter sugge=
sts
it has a financial emphasis, which is not entirely correct. To judge for
yourself order a free copy (or ten - several millions have been produced!=
).
For details visit www.mathsyear2000.org

I hope Peter's proposal gets developed - indeed earlier on this year I di=
d
arrange funding from Maths Year 2000 for a project aimed at social issues=
 of
mathematics, and was sorry it was never taken up. (Other funding
possibilities still exist.)

JOHN BIBBY

Statement of Interest: I have an interest in both BEAM and MY2000 and am =
NOT
related to Tamara Bibby, but I think they all make a lot of sense.

>
>      -----Original Message-----
>      From: maths-education-admin@nottingham.ac.uk
>      [mailto:maths-education-admin@nottingham.ac.uk]On Behalf Of
>      Peter Gates
>      Sent: 02 November 2000 13:48
>      To: maths-education@nottingham.ac.uk
>      Subject: [Maths-Education] Money counts..or money talks?
>
>      I have just come across two UK publications
>
>      "Money counts" by BEAM and the Financial Services authority
>      which claims
>      to be developing financial capability in the primary school
>      linked to the
>      numeracy strategy.
>
>      Another is a published by the "4 learning and maths year
>      20002" (never
>      heard of them myself). this is called "Your family counts".
>
>      Both books give classroom resources purporting to develop
>      childrens and
>      families numeracy by looking at matters financial.
>
>      Nothing in these books seems to be developing in children
>      the real values
>      of money - i.e. the issues of disadvantage, poverty, social
>      injustice,
>      usury, etc. etc.
>
>      I am interested in thinking about whether some of us could
>      put something
>      together (e.g. "Money Talks" or "It's only being really rich
>      that matters")
>      that consists of activities, examples etc. that raise the
>      critical aspects
>      and uses of mathematics. There might of course be a wealth (ooops)=
 of
>      resources out there of which i am  unfamiliar, but it strikes me a=
s
>      potentially useful to consider giving teachers some tasks
>      that raises real
>      social questions about the way in which poverty is both unevenly
>      distributed, how poverty is spread, how it costs the poor
>      more to live than
>      it costs the rich and all that stuff.
>
>      Is anyone interested, or does anyone have ideas??
>
>
>      Best wishes,
>      Peter
>
>      **************************************************
>      Peter Gates
>      Centre for the Study of Mathematics Education
>      University of Nottingham
>      Nottingham, NG7 2RD
>      Great Britain
>
>      peter.gates@nottingham.ac.uk
>
>      Tel: +44 115 951 4432
>      Fax: +44 115 846 6600
>
>      Mobile: 0773 080 8353 (pgates@genie.co.uk)

-----Original Message-----
From: maths-education-admin@nottingham.ac.uk
Sent: 02 November 2000 16:34
To: maths-education@nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [Maths-Education] Money counts..or money talks?

Anyone who chooses to work with financial institutions or government
organisations takes on some important limitations. On the other hand, the
possibilities for getting wide distribution of socialist, revolutionary o=
r
even liberal texts are limited, and as we know teachers attempting to
unsettle the dominant discourse of the maths classroom usually have to
resort to their own, or informal, networked materials.

We would entirely support Peter's proposal for the further development of
such materials, and remind readers of this list that it is not the case, =
as
David Pugalee puts it, that 'mathematics, in general, has not raised the
types of social issues that could be a 'wealth' of conscious raising
activities'. Aside from anything else, our knowledge of 'disadvantage,
poverty, social injustice, usury, etc. etc.', as Peter put it, is often
expressed in terms of mathematical discourses. Indeed, 'mathematics, in
general' is unclear ... Maths education? All classes, all teachers, all a=
ge
groups, all countries, all languages?

A  key difficulty for teachers at least in the UK trying to centre
curricula and pedagogy on issues of social justice is the dominance of
official discourses. These limit the possibilities for people attempting =
to
work inside those dominant discourses, including those writing maths book=
s
for school use.

Two of us were involved in producing one of the books Peter refers to -
"Money Counts" from BEAM and the Financial Services Agency. The
introduction to this book certainly refers to issues of poverty and socia=
l
injustice - albeit couched in the language of social inclusion. Activitie=
s
include the Cost of Living  which is set in the context of Jaqueline
Wilson's Bed and Breakfast Star - about a homeless family living in hoste=
l
accomodation; Internet Books which raises issues about credit cards and
young people's debt; Gifts, a comparison of different amounts of money
(including the National Health Service budget); Phone a Friend which
explores issues around advertising and confusion marketing; or What will
you buy / Special Offers which explore the different meanings of value (n=
ot
just monetary).

All these activities were a result of compromises and were certainly tone=
d
down. For example, one activity that was edited out was:

Discuss who you might lend money to and for what benefit to yourself
=A310 with a return of =A315 from an arms manufacturer
=A310 with return of =A311 from a clockwork radio maker
=A310 with no return from a medical emergency appeal

We think that books like this need to be set against the plethora of
materials that are produced by banks - little more than propoganda and fr=
ee
advertising targetted at getting young people to consume their products.
It's all very well to produce radical curriculum materials but these are
likely to be used by the teachers who would do this anyway.

Finally, it is important to recognise that these activities are aimed at =
5
to 11 year olds. Whilst young children's thinking can be very
sophisticated, their experience of financial, political and social issues
is necessarily limited.

Tamara Bibby ( tamara.bibby@kcl.ac.uk )
Jeremy Hodgen ( jeremy.hodgen@kcl.ac.uk )
Alison Tomlin ( alison.tomlin@kcl.ac.uk )

Jeremy Hodgen

e-mail: jeremy.hodgen@kcl.ac.uk