Radical Equations

            The book Radical Equations was an interesting story about Robert P. Moses and his journey through the civil rights movement and how he started the “Algebra Project”. During the Civil Rights Movement, he played an important role in Liberty, Mississippi where he helped the first Blacks, in the history of that town, register to vote. After going door to door asking if he could help people fill out the registration form, people finally began going with him to the courthouse to vote. There was a point when he was beaten by white people on the way to register voters. Another time, Blacks were registering to vote without him there and were refused. One was beaten. This caused an uproar from black students in the town.

            Because of the work Robert P. Moses did in the Civil Rights Movement, he received the 1982 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant. With this money, he started The Algebra Project. This project began when he realized his own daughter wasn’t receiving the math education that she deserved. He started by mentoring her and her classmates and saw tremendous results from those students. He continued mentoring and eventually began teaching. The methods he used were so incredible that other teachers began following suit the Project was born. When he realized he was onto something with this project, he started creating a curriculum for it and started pushing it towards other schools. Many teachers were skeptical but many came around. The methods used are based solely on teacher discretion and student interests. For example, calculators are used to interest students who are bored by textbooks. This project has spread to many states and cities.

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