LEARNING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS AS A CULTURALLY CONDITIONED PROCESS

I INTRODUCTION Norma X lives in a slum up the steep hills to the East of Bogota, Colombia. When I met her six years ago, she was seven years old and was attending first grade at the local school. She used to help her mother sell food and soft drinks on Sundays at a nearby park. She could sell a dozen bottles of soft drink at 9 pesos a bottle and quickly and accurately return change from a 200-peso bill. But she flunked first-grade arithmetic.