Making the Grade in Room 33G
In this Calculus class, the focus is on deriving equality.

By Charles Fountain
Photography by Tracy Powell

This is a 1960s Civil Rights story.

That might not be apparent, for the setting is not Birmingham or Selma, but Boston in the here and now.

The challenges are not segregated lunchrooms or voter registration. They are determining the primary equation, or finding the derivative, then factoring it out.

Mastering high school calculus might seem far removed from the fight for racial equality. Yet an undeniable continuum runs from the marches and demonstrations of the mid-century South to the secondary classrooms of new-century Massachusetts. At Northeastern, an associate mathematics professor and social activist has become a central strand in this thread. His mission: Bringing advanced mathematics into the inner city.

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