Flippant Anarchism. A lighter take on social criticism with the aim of agitation.
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I had this in a "math for the English and theatre majors" class called Modern Math. It never used anything much more complicated than basic "solve for X" algebra, but it had useful lessons like fair ways to divide up an estate, or how to plan a more efficient route across multiple destinations.
They also taught us why, mathematically, first past the post is just about the worst possible version of democracy, and why any of the several other options are objectively better.
Awesome! I've taught chemistry this way!
Solubility basics: acidic substances dissolve better at higher pH and vice versa. Example: tea pigmentation, slightly acidic. Compare: normal tea steeping, steeping tea in water with lemon (hint: add lemon AFTER steeping next time!), steeping tea in water with a hint of cheap baking soda added (notice slight taste modification, does that feel familiar? Somebody might save pennies by using less tea to get the color and nothing else in the only drink available). Discuss.
Result: students leave outraged with their canteen, school admin, the government that made this happen.
Would you mind dropping some inspo? I'm a maths teacher, too.
Solve this math problem: 1% of the population owns 50% of the wealth and nearly all of the property/capital. How many heads would you need to divide from the rest of the body (ideally using a guillotine) to solve this?
That question has a lot of variables that need to be properly defined.
My math skills are nowhere near good enough to solve that complex of an equation.
Unless we are talking about outright sizing their ill-gotten gains along with their head.. I’m down for that option, as it simplifies the math substantially.
My conversational German course just voted to hold a debate about shopping. I feel a little bad, but I’m going to take the anticommercialism even higher.
Edit: or should I do boycotts? I would love ideas, I’m brand new at this. I suspect at least one of the students is right wing, but I also think it might just be what he grew up with and not something he’s necessarily considered and committed to. I’d like to not push him away if possible, while still giving him some information and perspective that might make him think.
How about:
You don't have much choice as an individual consumer because huge conglomerates are allowed to buy or ruin competitors.
Shrinkflation?
Push to buy local, union, or from co-ops
I need to find something that they can discuss- I feel like they might all agree about those, but I could do a temperature check about local vs Amazon. At least one of them probably buys from Amazon.
I was thinking about giving pairs a company to research and they could look up reasons to boycott or support them and then debate that. I don’t know if anyone would want to argue for the companies, but they might want to argue against boycotting. I could maybe assign each of them a role in the company, industry, interest groups and government, then have them debate a policy.
I took a speech class in college and was assigned pro-gun and pro-hunting as my platform for the persuasive speech, something which I am not, actually, in favor of for the most part. I took it seriously, and did a good enough job to get an A. I still don’t support those positions but that’s not the point.
It’s actually really good to get students to research and write things they disagree with to some extent because it opens them up to new alternatives and information, and forces them to really think about good ways to counter-argue their own beliefs. Which imho is super useful long term because it makes people very aware of the… I guess non-absurdity? of their opposition. Like those people often came to their beliefs for similarly logical (or illogical) reasons you arrived at your own.
So maybe them not wanting to argue for the company doesn’t really matter, if you assign randomly and tell them they don’t have to agree with the position, but they do have to make a solid effort to support it. Even better if you give each of them an opportunity to swap sides for another, maybe similar, thing later.
It's the only choice.
Give them the lesson about percentages. “If the stock market yesterday morning was at 11000 points and falls 30% by close yesterday. only to rise by 30% today. Will the wealthy class claim that it closed at the same level before yesterday morning or acknowledge they skimmed the top while playing it off as it bounced completely back?”
“If the stock market yesterday morning was at 11000 points and falls 30% by close yesterday. only to rise by 30% today. Will the wealthy class claim that it closed at the same level before yesterday morning or acknowledge they skimmed the top while playing it off as it bounced completely back?”
It would also be a good lesson to teach them about how percentages are multiplicative rather than additive, and can be used like statistics to trick you.
For example, a 1100 base and having the market drop by 30% then rise by 30% would leave the market down by about 9% (1100 * .7 * 1.3 = 1001). You would actually need a 43% rise after the 30% fall to bounce completely back. (1100 *.7 * 1.43 = 1101.1)
Even if you don't get this blatant, percentages are a nice topic to teach about how ads and statistics can easily lie. Also drives home why knowing maths is important.