What kind of reaction do you get when you tell a new acquaintance that you were a math major?  Many of us are familiar with what often follows:  “I hated math in school” or “I’m just not a math person.”  At the same time, as the world increasingly relies on algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence, being comfortable with mathematical thinking has never been more important for making sense of the world around us.

These are among the themes explored in the new film Counted Out, which was recently screened at Grand Valley on March 20.  Featuring expert interviews and compelling real-life stories, the movie makes the case both that “math is power” and that we have a “math crisis in America.”

The first part of the movie demonstrates how our society’s discomfort with mathematics impacts our democracy and who has a say in important decisions facing our society, such as through gerrymandering.    By incorporating detailed demographic and voting data, congressional districts can be drawn to dramatically favor one party over the other.  For example, the 2012 election saw Republicans win 60% of the seats in the Wisconsin state legislature despite receiving only 50.05% of the votes.  Over the years, mathematicians have developed sophisticated techniques to detect gerrymandered redistricting plans.  Unfortunately, as the movie shows,, the Supreme Court has resisted incorporating mathematicians’ expert testimony believing that the public will not support decisions based on their analysis.

A second example in the film involves Glenn Rodriguez, a formerly incarcerated man who was imprisoned at the age of 16 and given a lengthy sentence.  In spite of exemplary behavior while incarcerated, he was repeatedly denied parole due to a proprietary algorithm that assessed him to be at high risk for recidivism.  After collecting data from many of his incarcerated peers, Rodriguez was able to reverse-engineer the algorithm and make the case that he was being unfairly denied parole, utilizing quantitative skills that made his argument compelling and successful. 

The film is dedicated to Bob Moses, a civil rights activist and organizer of voter registration efforts in 1960s Mississippi. Moses identified algebra as a barrier that denied students access to further education and entry into good-paying careers.  As a result, after receiving a MacArthur Genius grant, he started The Algebra Project, an effort to improve the quality of algebra education in order to provide greater opportunities for everyone.

As a civil rights organizer, Moses saw the power of giving voice to everyone in the room rather than being the person at the front of the room providing direction.  This perspective informed his thinking about mathematics education and the importance of recognizing and encouraging the creative mathematical ideas of all students.  In fact, the film contains several scenes of inspiring mathematics classrooms in which students are generating ideas and pursuing questions that are of interest to them.  By following a few students over several years, the audience sees the effectiveness of this approach in developing confidence in the students and a love of mathematics as well as economic opportunity.  Indeed, Grand Valley students may recognize these classrooms as familiar because of their use of active learning and curiosity-based discovery.  As one person says in the film, “Everyone is capable of mathematical thinking.  It’s like an inheritance you get just for being human.”

About 150 people attended the Grand Valley screening, representing a range of students, faculty, and community members.  In keeping with Pi Day celebrations in March, the film’s producers were hoping to host 314 screenings during March, and Grand Valley was happy to play their part with financial support from the mathematics department, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Honors College.

You may view a trailer at the film’s website and read an interview with the director in the New York Times article Why Democracy Lives and Dies by Math.