If a town had a calculated 640 liquor stores within its 3 mile radius from the Rodney King rebellion, 0 movie theaters, and 0 community centers, what does this tell us about the neighborhood and how it came to be this way?
There is a joke that some may know that surrounds the “evolution” of math; the joke basically gets at how the simple early grade school equation of 2+2=4 starts to include letters (x’s and y’s) and imaginary numbers (i) as a student progresses their mathematic skills. Yet, has anyone been introduced to a type of math that has a foundation within social contents? Despite the notion that social (justice) rhetoric resides only in the classroom of English, History, and the Humanities studies that serve to analyze it, Professor Rico Gutstein has proved that a math classroom also welcomes discourse of social issues.
After teaching mathematics at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois for 7 years, Gutstein admitted that he realized that he could not “develop part of his writing as a teacher over there.” Southwest of DePaul University is the University of Illinois at Chicago, one out of the six leading research-oriented universities in the state. As a result of this and the diverse student body at the university, he was drawn to furthering his teachings there. “UIC gave more opportunities,” Professor Gutstein tells me. “It would be closer to my experience in life.” So he took his math skills to UIC where he could include and further his humanities goal within his profession.
Briefly asking a couple of students at the University of Illinois at Chicago who were enrolled in Professor Gutstein’s class their initial reaction to the type of word problems he presented, the students admitted an initial surprise to it. Afi Djisseglo, a UIC senior who is an Urban Education major and enrolled in Gutstein’s Curriculum Instruction 404 course, also known as the teaching of math in Urban Elementary Classroom, explained one of the first math problems the class was assigned to solve. “So he started off by introducing us to the Los Angeles race riots because of the beating of Rodney King. He talked about how there was a lot of looting in LA,” she recalled.
The Los Angeles race riots of 1992, also named the Rodney King riots, included a series of riots and looting after the acquitting of police officers who had been videotaped using excessive force on Rodney King. When I interviewed Professor Gutstein, he was sure to give this background context for the purpose of his math problem.
“He posed the question: in a town, suppose if the population was a certain amount, how many community centers, schools, and liquor stores should there be in a neighborhood? We had to use our best judgment to guess,” Djisseglo recites the problem, “and even though [students] got different numbers, everyone agreed that schools and community centers were the most important and there needed to be more of those. Then [Professor Gutstein] basically gave us information revealing how many actual liquor stores there was: in the 3 mile radius there was about 600 liquor stores.”
Taken out of context, the problem may have seemed like one of those exaggerated ones. Similar to something like Johnny having 300 different apple seeds and having to calculate how many to plant within a specific radius. Yet, considering the circumstances the problem is within, the mass number of 600 liquor stores does seem extreme for such a small area of a town. The students also realized this soon enough.
Djisseglo continued on the details following the revealing of the correct answer: “We had to calculate it like any other math problem and after that he had us compare it to what we thought and it was so much more. And there was so many liquor stores but not many community centers or schools and this gave us an idea of where city funding go. The schools and community centers combined did not even equal the amount of the liquor stores.”
The kids had to solve using the area and ratio of the town, basic math. Now the bigger problem that the students disclosed they did not expect to be answering was the “why” and “how” of the problem’s solution in its context. Gutstein remembered the day that he stopped his car and formed this math problem. “Then ask questions,” he considered. “How far do you walk before running into a liquor store?”
Beyond his teaching role on a college campus, Gutstein and the organization that he helped create, Teachers for Social Justice, have worked to solve some of the social problems in urban education and the Chicago area. When asked what sparked his interest in the creation of the organization, Gutstein specified two leading causes. “Attention for [educational shifts] and to support teachers in the classroom,” Gustein explains is one of the two causes. The second being to “teach in culturally relevant ways and challenge curriculum and tie it into lives of the community.” The “educational shifts” he was referring to were the closing schools within Chicago, the oppression towards teachers, and the major’s power over appointing of school boards. “An accountability madness,” Gutstein discerned. “Education turned into a business plan.”
Rico Gutstein grew up in the inner city, “the hood,” of New York in the 50s and 60s. At age 18, he left New York and returned again, involving himself in social movements in his hometown. In college, his goal was to be a computer scientist and speak out on public policies; Gutstein received his degree in computer science, completed his PhD, and moved into math education. In his position, he said he wanted to “bring together ideas of social movement, history in 60s and 70s into teaching math.” He taught at Chicago Public Schools as a math teacher for middle-schoolers. Afterwards, he took his teaching career over to DePaul University from 1994 to 2001 before finally bringing his work to the UIC campus in 2001 to present times. He also often contributes to “Rethinking Schools,” a nonprofit organization and co-sponsor for some of the TSJ events that also seeks to aid students in learning and the manner in which education is being taught.
From doing research on the start of his professional career, his works and organization have made breakthroughs that multiple websites and members of the public have recognized. In 2005, the professor was “part of the Design Team that founded Chicago’s Social Justice High School (Lawndale),” the UIC website informed. The organization that he was a founding member of, Teachers for Social Justice (TSJ), was established in 1998 and has been playing an active role in the education and reformation of the Chicago region since its formation. Educational activists in the organization, like Gutstein, work to “develop critical and culturally relevant curriculum and pedagogy for use in K-12 schools.” TSJ is part of a national network of similar groups across the country but the organization serves for tackling the specific issues and injustices in the local area of Chicago.
Gutstein talked about many of the previous events and works he and the organization have have created, meanwhile being unfunded and 100% volunteer-based. “Another world is possible and necessary,” he recited, was the theme of a curriculum fair that they hosted a previous year. Teachers for Social Justice do an annual TSJ fair that has had large 900 participants over the series of several years. In addition to the annual fair, many other events and discussion have been born from the organization. Last year one of these included the defunding of policing, funding of communities and schools, teach-ins, and anti-racist teachings. In the summer of 2015, there was even a diet hunger strike.
“Development has been an evolution,” Professor Gutstein says as he states that the organization will turn 20 years old next year. He recalls important moments of the movement that he was involved in, including the CTU strike and the hunger strike. “Honor the hunger strike, not the strikers” was a motto amongst the participants of the strike.
In that summer of ’15, there was a goal to help the closed Walter Dyett High School building, the volunteers sought to create the Walter Dyett High School for Global Leadership and Green Technology. Gutstein helped with the proposal for the idea, aiding with the design and coordinating the writing of it. The goal extended from just education reform to the establishing of better, healthier food sources for the children and community. Relating back to the liquor store problem, the establishing of more efficient institutions and healthier markets is a solution to counter the detrimental aspects that are harming the neighborhoods and its youths.
Rico Gutstein’s involvement and preparations in TSJ is still taking place and growing. Future events are being worked on for the year and near future. The organization will be sponsoring some events, two of which are occurring in November. Trips to Cuba and Chile are being arranged for a 2 week delegation of 14 volunteers (4 of which or younger participants) for education and social goals. On November 18, 2017, Teachers for Social Justice will be holding their 16th Curriculum Fair at North Ground High School on 4338 W. Wabansia Ave.
He has written on problems of math equity for various academic publications and his invests his academic time into training his students and future teachers with effective and social-issue solving pedagogies. “In my work, I argue that K-12 students need to be prepared through their mathematics education to investigate and critique injustice (such as racism and language discrimination),” Gutstein reports on his staff page of the UIC College of Education site, “and to challenge, in words and actions, oppressive structures and acts. I prepare teachers who can teach mathematics and other subjects in this manner to students in urban settings.”
Rico Gutstein has dedicated his life to reshaping education and how students should learn about math and the world around them. From a young man who got himself involved in social movements, he even began to reshape his own mathematical knowledge to include realistic problems that plague urban societies to now. Gutstein has not only made his mark with his dedication to helping the youth, education, and communities, but he has also provided future educators who are enrolled in his class with the means to make a different. His role in Teachers for Social Justice and many contributions to society, including the invitation of volunteers to help make an impact in the city, has become an equation can may solve some of the educational and social issues of Chicago, one variable at a time.
A Words Shaker 