Humanizing math · pillar

Humanizing math, for every learner.

Math designed so every learner can see themselves as a mathematician, not just the confident ones. The story comes first. The math grows from a place the learner already cares about.

a district math specialist, on why it matters

Sue Totaro: think about the person before the numbers.

Sue Totaro, District Math Specialist · 2:08

a math lesson, in a real classroom

slope as a story: connecting coordinates to a real person's life.

learners graph the path one woman walks every day to reach water · 4:23 · more lessons in action

what humanizing math means

Math that puts the human first.

There is a quiet assumption inside most math instruction: that math is the domain of the confident, the quick, the ones who already think of themselves as math people. Everyone else gets remedial. Humanizing math rejects that frame. Every learner is already a mathematician — they just need the right entry.

A humanizing math classroom does not ask, "who can solve this fastest?" It asks, "what does each learner notice here, and how does math help us understand it more deeply?" The mathematical work is the same. The question of who gets to do it changes completely.

Not every child is represented in the world of mathematics. Humanizing math is how we change that.

Sue Totaro, District Math Specialist

three principles

What humanizing math actually looks like.

01

The story comes first.

Before any number appears, learners meet a real person doing real work. They observe. They wonder. They form questions that belong to them, not to the textbook. The math arrives as the next step in understanding the person, not as the assignment.

02

Every learner has an entry.

A wordless film does not gate-keep with reading proficiency. A real-world story does not gate-keep with cultural code. When the entry is equal, the mathematical work that follows is open to every learner in the room.

03

The work scales with the learner.

The same story holds many levels of math. A 2nd grader counts. A 6th grader compares ratios. A 9th grader models the system. No one is held back. No one is left behind. The story stays; the math grows.

the educator who put it into practice at district scale

"

You have given us a product that is aligned to the mathematical standards we need to teach and to the whole-person learning goals we have. The story and the math are the same thing. There is no separate character-building moment and separate math moment.

Sue Totaro, District Math Specialist · West Windsor-Plainsboro

Read Sue's full story →

the shift

From traditional math to humanizing math.

traditional math

What it asks of learners

  • Decode a contrived word problem
  • Translate it into an equation
  • Solve in a culturally-coded format
  • Centers confident learners; loses the others
  • Math feels separate from any real life

humanizing math

What it asks of learners

  • Observe a real person and what they do
  • Notice what is happening; ask your own questions
  • Find the math that lives inside the story
  • Every learner has a way in; the work scales with depth
  • Math becomes a way of understanding people

at district scale

West Windsor-Plainsboro, in their own words.

West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District in New Jersey uses humanizing math across grade levels. District math specialist Sue Totaro worked alongside the reweave team to align the wordless films and embedded math problems to district standards: fractions, word problems, proportional reasoning, measurement. The result is one curriculum layer that meets both academic and whole-person learning goals.

The educators do not have to choose between rigor and humanity. The story already contains both. A learner who is anxious about math can enter the work because she already cares about the person in the film. A learner who races ahead can find harder mathematical work in the same story.

See how the district uses it →
what your educators get with Pro

Four Pro features. Live demos.

Pick one. Watch how it works. None of these are mock-ups, they are the actual product.

tap any to watch the demo

questions about humanizing math.

the practice, the standards, the difference.

What is humanizing math?
Humanizing math is the practice of designing mathematical work so every learner can see themselves as a mathematician, not just the ones who already feel confident. It centers the human, not the algorithm. The story comes first; the math grows from a place the learner already cares about.
What does humanizing mathematics look like in the classroom?
A humanizing math classroom opens with a real human story, not a worksheet. Every learner enters at the same moment. Mathematical questions emerge from observations. The educator asks what learners notice before naming what they should calculate. Math becomes a tool for understanding someone real. See how wordless films work for the method.
Why does humanizing math matter for equity?
Traditional math curriculum often centers learners who already share its cultural code. Humanizing math gives every learner an authentic entry point: wordless stories that do not require reading mastery, real-world contexts from across the globe, and mathematical work that scales with the learner. Not every child is represented in conventional math; humanizing math changes who gets to be a mathematician.
Who developed the humanizing math approach?
Sue Totaro, District Math Specialist at West Windsor-Plainsboro in New Jersey, applies humanizing math at district scale. Researchers including Rochelle Gutierrez and others have written about humanizing approaches to mathematics education for years; Totaro brings the framework into daily practice across many classrooms.
How is humanizing math different from real-world math?
Real-world math is about the source of the problem: real people's stories, not contrived scenarios. Humanizing math is about who gets to be a mathematician — every learner, not just the confident ones. They overlap: humanizing math usually requires real-world contexts, and real-world math usually creates space for every learner to enter the work.
Can humanizing math meet state math standards?
Yes. Humanizing math is a pedagogical approach, not a replacement curriculum. Districts meet fractions, word problems, rates, ratios, proportional reasoning, and measurement standards while building the character and whole-person development goals districts already hold. Sue Totaro's district uses the approach without adding a separate curriculum layer.

Try humanizing math in your room.

Start free. Open one story. See what changes when every learner has a way in.

Begin free →
All math resources Real-world math Sue Totaro