MANSFIELD — Raheem Washington and Jakkar Bishop, eighth-graders at Malabar Middle School, were exactly the subjects Robert Moses was trying to reach Monday night.
Moses, The Ohio State University-Mansfield 2008 Distinguished Diversity Speaker discussed “Civil Rights and the Algebra Project” before approximately 150 people at Mansfield Senior High School. Washington and Bishop are part of the Mansfield Young People’s Project. They will begin tutoring first through third graders in math in February in the Mansfield City Schools.
Washington said math is hard for him sometimes, too.
“A lot of kids don’t know multiplication,” Washington said.
Bishop said a lot of kids don’t like math. “During tests they get overwhelmed and do (poorly),” he said.
Moses, a leader in the Mississippi voter registration efforts in the early 1960s, hopes the community will work to make students — all students — successful at math.
Moses said America hasn’t opened a window to make sure every student in the United States has the right to an education.
Moses answered questions about The Algebra Project, a non-profit organization which he founded, and how it’s working to achieve math literacy among minority and economically-challenged students. The local program is a partnership among OSU-M, Mansfield City Schools and The Algebra Project. It’s funded by a National Science Foundation grant.
The lecture brought students, faculty and parents.
John Riedl, formerly the dean and director of OSU-M, and a retired math professor, applauded Moses’ premise.
“He is absolutely right that mathematics is necessary for participating in the knowledge economy of the future,” Reidl said. “Anything that can be done to get kids actively involved in math is a plus.
“I applaud (OSU-M program coordinators) Lee McEwan and Heather Tanner for putting together this proposal for bringing this Algebra project to Mansfield. (Moses is) using the organizing principles he learned in the voting rights drive and getting the kids involved.”
Riedl said already one class is in the works and hopes momentum can build from it.
“One of the principles here is you’ve got to convince other kids that it’s important and they should insist on being allowed to learn math and that it matters,” Riedl said.
According to Moses, the concept promotes people working together. He asked members of the community to get involved and contribute ideas.
Moses started the project in 1982 with his own children. His daughter was ready to begin Algebra in public school but the school didn’t offer it so he lent a hand.
Phillip Farley, an OSU-M social work major, and a nontraditional student, came to the program for extra credit. Farley said he liked what Moses had to say.
“His speech reminded me that social economic status of students matters,” Farley said.
