What Have We Done to People in the Name of Math?

Abstract

This reflective commentary examines how mathematics education shapes students’ identities, anxieties, and long-term relationships with mathematics. Grounded in a personal conversation with a former student who described mathematics as useless and manipulative, the article explores how harmful mathematical experiences can lead students to see mathematics as a source of judgment rather than a tool for understanding. Drawing on scholarship about math anxiety, relational understanding, mathematics as a human and cultural practice, and mathematics for social justice, the article argues that educators must distinguish mathematics itself from the ways school mathematics has often been taught, assessed, and used to sort students. It concludes by proposing a repair-oriented approach to mathematics teaching that centers sense-making, student agency, multiple representations, and real-world investigation.