'The State' is not a single entity. And moreover the proponents of this type of education are glad to argue in bad faith that it isn't included in the curriculum while inserting it into textbooks and including the practices in teachers workshops.
We are at a crossroads between those who argue in good faith and those that argue in bad faith because they believe their means is acceptable for the ends they hope to achieve.
The State here is literally the State of Florida that is using its power to ban materials that it claims (without evidence) contains something bad, called “crt” (without even describing what is bad). And they’re not the bad actors in your mind?
I don't know about the constitutional or jurisdictional issues here. But I am curious why "critical race theory" would be in a math textbook. I've taught math myself, and I would only ever choose a textbook that was about math. Having random political stuff in a math text is a bit of a red flag. What purpose is it serving and who thinks it should be there. I don't know if a state can or should set limits on what's in textbooks, but conceptually, I don't see why anyone would want CRT in a math book.
Teaching that math problems have a correct solution ("1+1=2") is considered racist by some, because… I can't tell you, because I didn't understand that when it was discussed some time ago.
Maybe someone else remembers the structure of the argument and can provide an explanation?
The actual training teachers are receiving is that there are many ways to teach things like long division, and insisting on only using one method is not useful to students.
As an example, when teaching multiples of 9 you shouldn’t just use rote learning but point out the internal checksum of multiples of nine (add up all the digits to get a single digit and you get 9, for the simple tables the first digit will be 1 less than the number being multiplied, so 4 x 9 is 36, 3 + 6 is 9, 5 x 9 is forty-something so working backwards 9 - 4 is 5, so 4 x 9 is 45).
In addition there’s the “times ten minus one” method: 3 x 9 is the same as 3 x (10 - 1) so 30 - 3 is 27 (and add up the digits to make 9).
Teachers need to be allowed to use multiple methods of instruction, and restricting them to only exactly what is in the syllabus is racist because then the only people who get the quality instruction are the rich who can afford out of school tutelage, ie: predominantly white populations due to institutionalised racism in the USA keeping non-white populations poorer than their mostly white neighbours. Yes, there are white people living in poverty but when you compare white to non-white populations in the same region they are still better off.
The shorthand in the USA is that any policy which keeps poor people from success is racist because the rich/poor divide in the USA is predominantly along racial lines.
I agree with the multiple methods, but I believe that certain things in math are considered to be basic building blocks (such as single digits add/sub/mul/div) that should be memorized similar to in sports how certain movements are considered basic and are practiced until it becomes muscle memory.
As for the difference in outcome of white vs non-white in poor neighborhoods, I feel there are more at play than institutionalized racism, but it is incredibly difficult to have a nuance discussion on the topic.
Not exactly the most compelling. It mentions a bunch of reasonable trends that have nothing to do with race (like teaching kids why a formula works over expecting them to blindly memorize everything) and then claiming that the reason this is being done is about race instead of the obvious reasons.
> Teaching that math problems have a correct solution ("1+1=2") is considered racist by some, because… I can't tell you, because I didn't understand that when it was discussed some time ago.
This keeps coming up; I can't be bothered to find all the resources yet again on this, but a lot of reporting on this was bullshit. I should probably write an article about it so I can just link it.
What the text actually said was that a focus on "getting the right answer" was bad math education, and that you should focus more on the process, methods, and actual teaching understanding, rather than just "the right answer". You can teach a monkey to "get the right answer" by just applying a few tricks, but that doesn't mean the monkey understands math. Anyone with an interest in math will recognize this is just good math education.
Now, I do have gripes with that paper because it was also filled with really odd usages of "white supremacy" and the like that were completely misplaced; it seems like a really odd lens to view things through. I guess that's the "CRT" aspect and I don't understand at all where the authors are coming from with that. But if you ignore that then the actual advice with regards to math education was pretty solid.
It most certainly wasn't "have a correct solution ("1+1=2") is considered racist". Find the text. Read it. It's really not as bad as certain outrage sites would have you believe (again, there are aspects to criticise IMHO, but not this).
That, IMO, makes it dangerous, as it associates CRT with things everybody will agree to be good, indirectly instilling (or at least trying to do so) the notion that CRT is good.
This all means very little. Any pedagogy is going to make flowery claims about understanding material on a deeper level, and the Common Core already espouses these values. This sort of language is as obnoxious and insulting as saying, "What makes my pedagogy different? I emphasize actual learning."
What's important is in the concrete specs which textbook makers, curriculum designers, and other industry stakeholders will target and respond to. And under the Equitable Math program, there is simply no spec for, say, Algebra in middle school. That's what industry stakeholders and textbook writers will see.
The short answer: it isn't, and they're throwing chum to their base. Or lying, because they didn't name any of the material that they've banned. Maybe even some of both.
The slightly longer answer: if you read the claim, it's just a re-warmed litany of current and past right-wing shibboleths. "Inclusions of Common Core." That one's a decade old. "The unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning in mathematics." That one's from the sixties. These are the drumbeat words pounded into the heads of the people listening to talk radio every day. The officials involved know that these phrases cause knee-jerk reactions from their base and the folks doing the banning would like those to associate positive feelings with them the next time they've got an election to win (Corcoran is a pretty well-known Republican flack).
(The comedy answer: some of the word problems probably used identifiably nontraditionally white names. And the tragic answer: the comedy answer might be right.)
Why do you believe Florida here? What’s more likely, that a math book is trying to “brainwash kids through CRT” or known political exaggerators are exaggerating?
As a former student and now a parent. I have no idea why we need to recreate math books over and over and over again. Seems an incredible waste of resources. The fundamental material doesn't change.
I have seen politically motivated questions pop up in math questions for my kids. For years, this is pretty standard practice in my experience. Its not an appropriate venue to promote ideas yet it is used.
I am unsurprised at the Florida announcement. But it speaks to much deeper issues in education and I'm uncertain at Florida's moves.
Not the OP but I remember people had a bit of a reaction to maths and other textbooks when I was at school 30+ years ago in a rural part of the UK.
The people in the examples were usually non-traditional British names like Deepak, Surinder, Jamal etc. yet such names would be very rare in a place with little immigration at that time. There would only be a handful of non British-white kids in a school of thousands.
The reaction was far from outrage just a "well I guess we are doing this now". As a kid it seemed a little silly and forced but it was my first exposure to those names in print and helped normalise such identities. I'd say it was a positive thing if a bit over done / not subtle. I'd hate to think what would have happened if the parents had mumsnet or twitter back then...
Yeah, exactly--I spent some time thinking before asking the question, and that was about all I could come up with, too. And that felt so obviously silly that that can't be it, right?
> As a former student and now a parent. I have no idea why we need to recreate math books over and over and over again. Seems an incredible waste of resources. The fundamental material doesn't change.
The way we teach the material changes, for valid reasons:
1. We can get better at teaching it. (Optimistically).
2. We might need to update textbooks for more up-to-date references. Even if it's not political ideas, textbooks might reference things that are not relevant (or not reference things that are).
3. Whether or not they are better, sometimes new ideas of how to teach material are created. E.g. new math etc.
Yes, because filing a FOIA request on a holiday weekend and getting a response is required before merely asking officials for more details about their decision.
This is a pretty poor characterization of the context of the comment.
Accusations are flying around here including calling them liars and intentionally hiding information. This is a far cry from "merely asking". Particularly since the other party isn't present in the forum, providing the avenue available to us to actually do the asking seemed reasonable to me.
Unless the point is to complain uselessly into the void because of the need for two minutes of hate against political enemies. Then I'll bow out...
> This is a pretty poor characterization of the context of the comment.
I think it’s a completely fair characterization of the comment. You said:
>> Have you even tried to get the records? Or are you just complaining that they weren't provided in the announcement for your convenience?
The only fair way to read that comment is that if you haven’t gone through a FOIA process (on a holiday weekend), you can’t comment or complain about the lack of transparency in a decision.
It’s actually very common that press releases like this are offered up with appendixes that show the decision making process and examples. That didn’t happen here. It’s worth asking why and it’s worth criticizing the ruling party for not offering that information. That’s not a political statement.
> Accusations are flying around here including calling them liars and intentionally hiding information.
I didn’t make any of those accusations. I said
>> Ask the governor of Florida. He's the one who put out the press release but refuses to offer any evidence for why books were banned.
Because thus far, he is the one who has put out the informantion and has refused to provide evidence when asked (and he has been asked, as has the Department of Education). Not responding is a refusal (or worse, implying that details might not be public until the publishers have appealed). It allows people on both sides to invent reasons as to why books were banned, which doesn’t help anything. If you can’t share the details about specific books not being accepted (and I think that is a cop-out excuse), you shouldn’t issue a press release saying it is for X reason with absolutely zero evidence or context. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement or opinion.
> Unless the point is to complain uselessly into the void because of the need for two minutes of hate against political enemies. Then I'll bow out...
You seem to see this as an issue about political sides; it isn’t. I would have the exact same response if a Democratic governor issued an order without proof/evidence of why a decision was made, especially if it were blatantly about pandering to the base.
> Worth noting: The education department described the review process as "transparent," but did not name the rejected textbooks nor provide examples of passages that failed to meet the criteria.
"Critical theory can be a vehicle through which we embrace the political nature of mathematics education while engaging students, especially those most vulnerable in the discipline, in mathematics. Critical theory has at its center the examination of power and privilege inherent in large systems such as the system of education."
Wtf does that mean for a math textbook? Cringey word problems of the form "if 7 people are racist, and the number of racist people double every 2 years, how many after 6 years?" Like its kind of hard to figure out what that means concretely.
What’s wrong with inserting an irrational political premise which subverts the clean, rational/objective world of maths, into the books we use to teach our kids? It’s literally wedging a political framing into the foundation of mathematics.
For every one of you who apparently sees no problem, there is at a minimum one other who thinks you’re absolutely bonkers. Many of whom frankly are probably willing to physically fight to prevent it.
"28 (21%) of these books were "not included on the adopted list because they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT," the statement said."
So, the books contained something they didn't like. One of the things they don't like is CRT.
It's not clear that any of the math books even do contain CRT based on what was said.
> But I am curious why "critical race theory" would be in a math textbook.
Unless they actually tell us what they found, we really won't know. It could just be more FUD to stir up the base, actually, that is probably what it is.
So, instead of HN commenters to ask Florida offer evidence that these math books contain CRT (whatever that even means here) people go off on the typical tangents. Let’s get some facts straight: Florida is banning books, blaming it on CRT, and not offering proof. They could, you know, show the offending pages and texts. The fact that they don’t should tell you something.
Please explain how its hyperbole. If it’s not approved for the school…are teachers allowed to use it? If they’re not allowed to use it, isn’t it banned? Or are you saying because private citizens can buy it at home it’s not banned? If the later, would you be fine with me saying “banning teachers from using these books”?
Well if you’re not sure, then here are the simple terms…
You say “banning books” and people start thinking about the fascists burning things they disagreed with.
This is completely different. All the knowledge is still available in normal books and on the internet, they’re just saying that the math books submitted were not up to their requirements.
“The education department described the review process as "transparent," but did not name the rejected textbooks nor provide examples of passages that failed to meet the criteria.”
I really wish they'd give an example of whatever content they're talking about.
Like when I took math in K-12 one thing I remember is they'd always try to be multicultural with the names in word problems and didn't just use generic white names like "John", "Adam", etc. If THIS is what they're referring to as CRT, then who cares?
For example, something like this: "Given population estimates, how many people from each racial group are likely experiencing food insecurity across the U.S.? In your city/state?"
I don't think there's anything bad about this as long as the data is genuine. But I'd love to hear from someone of a different opinion
It's odd you don't see something bad there. The reality we should hope for would ask the question of how many Americans or Floridians are food insecure, not how many of this race or that. Race is a political tool and that's about it. Culture is what makes people.
It’s odd that you don’t instantly recognise your objection as whitewashing.
Covering up problems by referring to state-level statistics instead of looking at demographics is racist propaganda. Race is indeed a political tool, as are efforts to ignore it.
Is it possible that mathematics should be taught dispassionately, without resorting to inflammatory examples? Surely anyone can trivially come up with dozens of questions to use in a statistics problem that wouldn't raise any eyebrows. If so, the fact that someone would choose that specific question should call into question the motivation behind it.
Why does it raise eyebrows? What about this question raises eyebrows if it indicates actual socioeconomic divisions in society? Do you just wanna pretend that those differences aren't there?
These examples aren't inflammatory unless you're in denial
The fact that you're saying it shouldn't raise eyebrows implies that you know it raises at least some eyebrows. So I ask again: why are you asking a question that you know could raise some eyebrows when you could have asked one that wouldn't have raised any?
You can't ask a politically-charged question in a class that has nothing to do with politics and then act surprised when people accuse you of injecting politics where it doesn't belong.
The difference is the example question isn't political, it merely puts a data set in front of students and has them analyze it.
> You can't ask a politically-charged question in a class that has nothing to do with politics
The question has nothing to do with politics. It would be political if the teacher said: "now draw these conclusions, vote for these people". I know the link I provided had questions that were more in line with this, but the specific example I gave isn't asking for any conclusions, only observations
Setting the joke aside, is there really that much difference between giving you that (perfectly true) statistic and just telling you "pirates prevent global warming"?
This isn't about me. It's about whether children should be expected to deal with irrelevant topics in class. There are an infinite number of ways to ask the same mathematical problem that don't involve political issues. But you insist that it must be so, then deny that it is so. And to cap it off, you call anyone that disagrees a racist... not flat out, through insinuation.
Surely you don’t think we should include questions about which race commits the most violent crimes proportionally? Because in this thread your claim is that dry simple facts should be fine even if they raise eyebrows. It seems to me that context is important and often people don’t agree on what the statements mean, and that these concerns have no place in a math class.
The race which committed the most violent crime in the last 5, 4, 3, 2, & 1 centuries are whites but I suspect you wouldnt like that answer. Just because we conveniently don't include mass murder (Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, WW2, etc) durings wars on the white tally, it doesn't change that fact.
Generally, most framing in the western world is self serving to a particular group of people, so these kinds of facts don't go over so well.
So you are trying to say that any action of the US military is a white action?
Maybe check the statistics on that one.
If anything, what you are saying is racist and discounts ever person in the government and military that is not 'white' , a bizarre category of not actually being a race that is invented for arguments like your own
>These examples aren't inflammatory unless you're in denial
Some facts can be both true and inflammatory. Complex and nuanced topics should be approached with respect, as it is very easy to mislead or confuse, especially children.
Imagine using homicide offense rate by race to teach fractions for an example how someone could draw wild conclusions from accurate facts. If a teacher used the example black men are 7 times more likely than white men as a math example, it would be incredibly reckless.
Race is a very loaded topic. You could teach a college course on this fact and still start to scratch the surface.
What would raise my eyebrows is not using real world examples to help children understand mathematics. There are very few people who can handle completely abstract mathematics at any age, and it has been necessary to use examples such as counting rocks or sticks to teach basic numeracy since language was invented.
This need to ground the instruction in practical examples applies especially to statistics in schools where the most relatable population for discussing populations is the human population.
The history of erasing inconvenient populations by various deliberate or accidental means such as focussing on outcomes rather than causes is something that absolutely does need to be taught as part of a statistics course. When studying the physical properties of gasses we don’t ignore the spurious peaks in excitation data, we look for explanations as to why those two peaks in the hydrogen excitation experiment occurred. Binning by wider excitation ranges would have helped erase those anomalies, but the scientists chose to ask the question rather than hide the uncomfortable facts (“eliminate the outliers”).
We necessarily should be asking political questions in statistics because most statistics are innately tied to human behaviour, not pure mathematics or science. Are there more people working in maths and physics or law enforcement and legislation?
The best way to educate future statisticians about invisible populations is to teach them about the mistakes of the past. These mistakes include for example focussing on which current populations commit the most violent domestic crimes per capita without thinking to ask why people commit crime, and then comparing per capita crime rates to the various causative factors of crime (which might be for example wealth, access to employment, police hours per capita).
Everything is politics, any time there are one or more people involved. There is no escaping this even in mathematics. To pretend otherwise is to reinforce the erasure of oppressed populations such as women and non-majority races/cultures (and note that using the word “cultures” instead of “races” doesn’t stop you being racist).
Essay topic for today: is there race or gender discrimination in physics and maths employment in the USA? Why are there so few women in STEM and where do populations start to become more distinct? Is the bimodal distribution of various characteristics by sex sufficient to explain the male dominance of mathematics and physics and the rapid decline of female populations from high school through to the end of a bachelors degree? Are there factors apart from IQ that can explain the lack of women in STEM?
I think that math problems should be carefully drafted to be as neutral as possible, and not used as vectors of indoctrination other than the mathematical. A word problem requires non-relevant noise, but it is as distracting for that noise to contain a social message as a commercial advertisement.
And for it to carry a controversial social message will cause friction in an institution that includes all political tribes, which detracts from the non-ideological education mission.
I think that math is useful and worthwhile in so far as it applies to real world problems. The point of doing word problems isn't to distract kids with "non-relevant noise", but to indicate that the things they are learning have a practical application in everyday life
I don't think this word problem carries a social message, it just puts data in front of students and asks them to compare different categories. There would be a social message if the problem was normative, like "because these differences exist, ___ is the answer". But that kind of thinking isn't really math, it would be better suited to something like social studies or language arts
>The point of doing word problems isn't to distract kids with "non-relevant noise", but to indicate that the things they are learning have a practical application in everyday life
Figuring out "how many people from each racial group are likely experiencing food insecurity across the U.S." is an everyday problem?
>I don't think this word problem carries a social message, it just puts data in front of students and asks them to compare different categories.
The message is not in the question itself or in the data, but in the fact that this particular question was chosen in favor of any other. Would you think I don't have any ulterior motive if I asked "these are the arrest statistics across the US, tabulated by race. What conclusions can be drawn from this?"?
> Figuring out "how many people from each racial group are likely experiencing food insecurity across the U.S." is an everyday problem?
It's more of an everyday problem than just giving students unlabeled categories.
> Would you think I don't have any ulterior motive if I asked "these are the arrest statistics across the US, tabulated by race. What conclusions can be drawn from this?"?
If by "ulterior motive" you mean raising awareness about different socioeconomic cohorts in American society, I have no issue with those kinds of motives.
If the stance was more aggressive e.g. "you need to draw these conclusions from these numbers and support this kind of policy", that's essentially indoctrination and we can both agree that it's out of place in any genuine education.
But just raising awareness about different demographics and socioeconomic groups and encouraging discussion (in a way that's open, socratic, with minimal teacher intervention): this I have no issue with.
Would you have the same opinion if instead of "how many people from each racial group are likely experiencing food insecurity across the U.S.?" it was "committing crimes" or "receiving welfare"?
Do you think that the food insecurity example may not produce a feeling of pity towards minority students, and a feeling of rejection in the minority students themselves?
The problem with this isn't the facts being presented, but the fact that when these sort of facts are needlessly inserted into every possible area of a child's education that child will then have a fundamentally different outlook and racial division will only rise as these differences are expounded
> Do you think that the food insecurity example may not produce a feeling of pity towards minority students, and a feeling of rejection in the minority students themselves?
It could. I don't disagree with this objection, but at the same time this argument isn't just confined to math but also other subjects. I think that trying to cover up current socioeconomic divisions is on par with covering up less tasteful parts of US history, both are whitewashing. The world isn't perfect, we shouldn't pretend that it is
> The problem with this isn't the facts being presented, but the fact that when these sort of facts are needlessly inserted into every possible area of a child's education that child will then have a fundamentally different outlook and racial division will only rise as these differences are expounded
I wouldn't describe acknowledging things that elicit discomfort as "needless insertions". Also they aren't inserted everywhere (as far as I know...)
I don't think acknowledging a situation will necessarily exacerbate it. I think the first step to moving beyond a situation is acknowledging it
I don't disagree that these things should be acknowledged and taught, but only in the proper setting. Constantly hammering every existing racial disparity into a child's mind is what I'm concerned about. Math isn't a place for this, history and social studies is.
I would like to see the specific textbooks in question here, but for anyone who doubts there are attempts to shove “CRT” or similar ideological issues into math classes, here are a couple of examples:
- NYT: Should Social Justice Be Part of Math Education? Proposed guidelines in California would de-emphasize calculus, reject the idea that some children are naturally gifted, and build a connection to social justice. [1]
- Math Suffers From White Supremacy, According to a Bill Gates-Funded Course. "White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when... The focus is on getting the 'right' answer." [2]
Of course your comment is being blasted because you actually offer evidence.
So many comments seem to question the veracity of the claim and dismiss it entirely as a political move when this is something that is being adopted and used to indoctrinate
It appears that you cut-off a quote. The full quote is: There is a greater focus on getting the "right" answer than understanding concepts and reasoning.
You may still disagree with that! But just for the sake of addressing arguments fairly, worth not butchering what people are trying to communicate. It's a fair thing to argue that what matters is students understanding WHY something is right rather than just getting the answer correct.
If I didn't know any better I'd say that document was produced with the explicit intent just to troll people:
1) On one hand the worksheet offers pretty solid common-sense math education advice;
2) but also, it peppers this with very odd unsubstantiated claims and accusations of "racism" and "white supremacy" that make no sense at all.
If you say "this is good math advice" then you're right, but if you say "this is piece of unsubstantiated nonsense" then you're also right.
I'm annoyed that the stupid "getting the right answer is racist"-line keeps coming up, as you said I think accuracy is important. But I'm also annoyed at the authors of that paper for covering good math advice in such weird muddled stuff that's easily open to misinterpretation.
Thanks for sharing. I can provide dozens of such examples in teaching materials. It doesn't matter. Most HNers will say it's an exaggeration and move the goalpost wrt definitions. It's a massive waste of time. "Logic" and "rationality" loses to passion and costly social shaming every single time, especially in the social pseudosciences.
That's because it takes more effort and time than you're willing to engage with in good faith. Maybe I should bill you the $100-200/hr HN recommends. Anyway here is just the tip of the iceberg.
--------
Let's start with the one mentioned by OP that targets teachers across multiple states (California, Oregon, )
https://equitablemath.org/
"In an email sent out by the Oregon Department of Education, teachers were encouraged to enroll in a course called 'A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction.' The course came with an 82-page instructional guide that lists the ways in which white supremacy is perpetuated in math class.
'White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,' the guide reads. 'Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.'
The guide offers a year-long framework for 'deconstructing racism in mathematics.' It calls for 'visibilizing [sic] the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture with respect to math.'
Examples of classroom actions that allegedly perpetuate white supremacy include asking students to show their work, focusing on getting the right answer, tracking student success, and grading students. "
‘Decolonise’ maths by subtracting white male viewpoint, urges Durham University
A new guide says professors must question themselves if they are citing work from ‘mostly white or male’ mathematicians
https://archive.ph/O0Itb
“decolonising the mathematical curriculum means considering the cultural origins of the mathematical concepts, focusses, and notation we most commonly use.”
“[T]he question of whether we have allowed Western mathematicians to dominate in our discipline is no less relevant than whether we have allowed western authors to dominate the field of literature. It may even be more important, if only because mathematics is rather more central to the advancement of science than is literature.”
----
Ontario Dept of Education Grade 9 Mathematics Curriculum: Math has Euro-centric, colonial, and racist (of course) roots and we have to teach students the history of that. And that Math can be subjective
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/ontario-math-is-subjec...
"Changes to Ontario’s math curriculum announced last year by Education Minister Stephen Lecce will include a ‘subjective’ and ‘decolonial’ approach to mathematics, according to documents posted on the ministry’s website.
'Mathematics is often positioned as an objective and pure discipline,' reads a section of an online brief highlighting the ‘vision and goals’ of the updated curriculum.
'However, the content and the context in which it is taught, the mathematicians who are celebrated, and the importance that is placed upon mathematics by society are subjective.'
Math, it continues, has been 'used to normalize racism and marginalization of non-Eurocentric mathematical knowledges,' and explains that taking a 'decolonial' and 'anti-racis...
Some of these seem pertinent to your point, others seem irrelevent, and some even seem to undermine you. If i was paying for this i would want my money back.
For example,you list
> It still says that as a math teacher it's your job to remove the thing stopping minorites from succeeding which obviously must be inequity, racism, and discrimation. "Research indicates that there are groups of students (for example, Indigenous students, Black students, students experiencing homelessness, students living in poverty, students with LGBTQ+ identities, and students with special education needs and disabilities) who continue to experience systemic barriers to accessing high-level instruction in and support with learning mathematics. Systemic barriers, such as racism, implicit bias, and other forms of discrimination, can result in inequitable academic and life outcomes, such as low confidence in one’s ability to learn mathematics, reduced rates of credit completion, and leaving the secondary school system prior to earning a diploma. Achieving equitable outcomes in mathematics for all students requires educators to be aware of and identify these barriers, as well as the ways in which they can overlap and intersect, which can compound their effect on student well-being, student success, and students’ experiences in the classroom and in the school. Educators must not only know about these barriers, they must work actively and with urgency to address and remove them." https://www.dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/curriculum/secondary-mathem...
Based on that snippet, it seems to be saying that if a teacher is being straight up racist, e.g. marking black students differently than white students for the same work (or perhaps something more subtle), that is wrong and should be stopped.
Is that really what you want to use as an example of inapropriate political interference in the classroom?
If we are to believe the other content from their colleagues, "systemic racism" is not necessarily what the common man would define as racist like you're suggesting which hasn't been explicitly legally allowed (more the opposite) for decades in all first-world countries I'm aware of, but almost anything whatsoever -- no matter how intentional or not.
According to some of these teaching guides, the first one recommended by State Depts. of Education, things such as the concept of grading work, expecting assignments to be turned in, etc. All are "systemic" (common features of the learning system), and now "racist", therefore "systemic racism". That's the "beauty" of their way of writing. It can mean anything they want at anytime, and is framed in such a way that calling them out automatically "undermines" (to use your term) yourself for investigating their gelatinous word-soup common in their writing. Even asking questions about it you find yourself Kafkatrapped.
"We are pro-good, anti-bad. What kind of person would you need to be to even ask questions about it in the first place in this day and age. Wow, really says a lot about you. Be better and do the work." That's just gossip, moralizing, shaming, all dressed-up and using the shield of academicism. It shares many characteristics with religion from a century or two ago, certainly its tribalism and fervor.
So, if you apply some critical thought here, you might observe that the equitable math may be talking about the right answer in terms of the process. Not questioning whether 1+1=2 is wrong, but whether it make sense to test students on that or try to teach kids to get to 1+1=2. What do you think is better in a class room? The final answer or the process?
I think both are important. One solution is to give credit for both the work (i.e. the process with which the student attempts to solve the problem) and the correct answer. This is because in real life the correct answer matters, and we should encourage students to be careful with their work to make sure it is correct. I would also encourage students to check their answer if it is simple (i.e. substitute 3 for x and see if the equation holds).
The article is about Floria rejecting some maths textbooks without specifying which and why exactly:
> Worth noting: The education department described the review process as "transparent," but did not name the rejected textbooks nor provide examples of passages that failed to meet the criteria.
I'm not from the US, but I fail to see how Californian guidelines are relevant in that regard, however bad they might be.
Texas is the behemoth in school textbook production. I don’t think they’re likely to have allowed CRT into all those math books. Not really their thing, y’know.
For those who find this and ask the question "What does math have to do with white supremacy?", I will attempt to try and lay out the argument. I'm going to assume you're asking this question in good faith.
I understand that the phrase "white supremacy" is equated with the idea that "people who identify as white are superior" (bad). I also understand the immediate reaction is to possibly think "I am not a bad person and I identify as white, so there must be something wrong here". When you then tie it to a concept like math, the next thought then tends to go to "how can a concept, not a person, like math, inherit a bad human trait like superiority"? It can't, so therefore there must be something wrong with these ideas.
First, the argument is not referring to a person, but a culture. Another way to think about it is a system. In this context, the system simply refers to the current methods of teaching.
If we all agree that the goal is to encourage as many people as possible to participate in STEM, enjoy it, thrive in it, and feel supported in it and we all agree that the data and studies show that our current system could be improved to accomplish this goal, the next conclusion is to criticize the system of which we teach fundamental concepts, like math.
Within our current system (or culture), we teach math a certain way. Some of those ways emphasize independent practice, mistakes are failure, teaching concepts linearly, and/or grading students based on what they don't know.
Because a lot of us learned this way and we are in the STEM field, we may ask ourselves "what is wrong with that?"
The argument is not that you don't have a legitimate question. The argument is that stopping at the question does not achieve the goal. After years and years of social science study of what prevents people of color from getting into STEM fields (if you don't believe these studies exist, that is ok, but only encourage your own investigation), the argument of "white supremacy culture in math" is providing points of how to center the experiences of people in color within the curriculum of teaching math to increase the thing we all seem to claim we want: the pipeline.
As a Black man, its really hard to be a part of this community and see people argue that is a pipeline problem, see scholars provide solutions to address the pipeline, then see those same people say "but why do we have to change anything, why is this relevant?"
At this point, it just feels like some people actually don't want a solution. Even if this doesn't work, why are we afraid to try? Isn't that the point of being part of the scientific community?
Instead, we're stuck demonizing the motives of people we don't know who are trying to help others who may be outside of our own bubble.
Sorry, but you didn't answer the question you set out to answer. What does mathematics or the way its taught have to do with white supremacy?
> After years and years of social science study of what prevents people of color from getting into STEM fields (if you don't believe these studies exist, that is ok, but only encourage your own investigation), the argument of "white supremacy culture in math" is providing points of how to center the experiences of people in color within the curriculum of teaching math to increase the thing we all seem to claim we want: the pipeline.
"Prevents"? Surely there are physicists and mathematicians graduating in majority non-white countries. Somehow I doubt they teach mathematics in a radically different way. If that's the case then I don't see how doing anything to the curriculum could have any effect.
After reading your comment a few times, I still don't see the argument for why it makes sense to partition simply based on race. At best it's a proxy for real personal difficulties, but at worst it's just another top-down cookie cutter model that will precess and oppress the individuals it claims to help.
Anybody that has gone to school or otherwise suffered an institution is keenly aware that the major failure mode of institutions is trying to push top-down models that don't respect the individual details of their members. Taking it as a given that different people have their own individual learning style - why wouldn't we want to, for each individual, determine a teaching approach that best suits them? There will likely be correlation between race and learning style, but why should we take that as a fundamental given and leave behind all of those students who don't fit that simple model?
For example, from page 10 of the pdf you linked:
> Design homework policies that are responsive to the lives of students of color in order to support their learning needs.
Shouldn't homework policies be responsive to all students home lives? What is special about "of color" that makes for a different home life, beyond being correlated to other qualities that would be more appropriate to speak in terms of?
I'll give you that there is an issue of latent racism where a teacher will/may be less understanding to a minority, but it seems like addressing this issue directly makes more sense, rather than thinking it will fall out of some overabstracted general concern. Reading that pdf gives me the same exact feeling I had reading "literature" in college that mostly consisted of ambiguous postmodern rambling, where the only winning move was to regurgitate the themes and phrases the professor themselves had said. Such antirealism is not a foundation for reforming society.
(Having said that, I think this "CRT" political trope is mostly just a bogeyman)
There are two great responses here that read your points and the source material and come to the same conclusion. You have not made a point.
Why not try? Because this is the wrong method. Kids hardly learn math as it is. Confounding their learning with other factors will only make the whole situation worse.
Read these comments and try to understand why people are opposed to these methods. Force divisive topics into the classroom and no one will learn
Florida bans math books that contain controversial politics for elementary children, and people get angry because...people don't trust those books did contain the disputed info? Florida didn't release the list of banned books?
How about we simply wait for those books' authors to complain and then we can identify, read, and judge? The internet is going haywire over something they don't know anything about, it's ridiculous.
> How about we simply wait for those books' authors to complain and then we can identify, read, and judge?
How can they complain, they literally don't know they've been banned.
> The internet is going haywire over something they don't know anything about, it's ridiculous.
The internet is going haywire about the government banning textbooks while refusing to make public what books and why. I'd say anyone trying to pretend this is ok is being ridiculous.
> How can they complain, they literally don't know they've been banned.
Good point. My thought is they'll find out when their books aren't used in Florida.
> The internet is going haywire about the government banning textbooks while refusing to make public what books and why. I'd say anyone trying to pretend this is ok is being ridiculous.
The government isn't simply "banning textbooks": they're banning books with controversial political messages being shown to the most psychologically vulnerable population: elementary children.
Until we know the details, I have no issue with other math books with no politics being used.
> The government isn't simply "banning textbooks": they're banning books with controversial political messages being shown to the most psychologically vulnerable population: elementary children.
They say they are, while refusing to say what books or why. I fail to see why the government deserves the benefit of the doubt while maintaining this kind secrecy over something that has zero reason not to be transparent if true.
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[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 199 ms ] threadWe are at a crossroads between those who argue in good faith and those that argue in bad faith because they believe their means is acceptable for the ends they hope to achieve.
Remove from the curriculum.
Especially there, textbooks tend to have examples. Those could be racist.
Teaching that math problems have a correct solution ("1+1=2") is considered racist by some, because… I can't tell you, because I didn't understand that when it was discussed some time ago.
Maybe someone else remembers the structure of the argument and can provide an explanation?
https://twitter.com/Michael_Frisch_/status/13635430659868180...
The actual training teachers are receiving is that there are many ways to teach things like long division, and insisting on only using one method is not useful to students.
As an example, when teaching multiples of 9 you shouldn’t just use rote learning but point out the internal checksum of multiples of nine (add up all the digits to get a single digit and you get 9, for the simple tables the first digit will be 1 less than the number being multiplied, so 4 x 9 is 36, 3 + 6 is 9, 5 x 9 is forty-something so working backwards 9 - 4 is 5, so 4 x 9 is 45).
In addition there’s the “times ten minus one” method: 3 x 9 is the same as 3 x (10 - 1) so 30 - 3 is 27 (and add up the digits to make 9).
Teachers need to be allowed to use multiple methods of instruction, and restricting them to only exactly what is in the syllabus is racist because then the only people who get the quality instruction are the rich who can afford out of school tutelage, ie: predominantly white populations due to institutionalised racism in the USA keeping non-white populations poorer than their mostly white neighbours. Yes, there are white people living in poverty but when you compare white to non-white populations in the same region they are still better off.
The shorthand in the USA is that any policy which keeps poor people from success is racist because the rich/poor divide in the USA is predominantly along racial lines.
As for the difference in outcome of white vs non-white in poor neighborhoods, I feel there are more at play than institutionalized racism, but it is incredibly difficult to have a nuance discussion on the topic.
This keeps coming up; I can't be bothered to find all the resources yet again on this, but a lot of reporting on this was bullshit. I should probably write an article about it so I can just link it.
What the text actually said was that a focus on "getting the right answer" was bad math education, and that you should focus more on the process, methods, and actual teaching understanding, rather than just "the right answer". You can teach a monkey to "get the right answer" by just applying a few tricks, but that doesn't mean the monkey understands math. Anyone with an interest in math will recognize this is just good math education.
Now, I do have gripes with that paper because it was also filled with really odd usages of "white supremacy" and the like that were completely misplaced; it seems like a really odd lens to view things through. I guess that's the "CRT" aspect and I don't understand at all where the authors are coming from with that. But if you ignore that then the actual advice with regards to math education was pretty solid.
It most certainly wasn't "have a correct solution ("1+1=2") is considered racist". Find the text. Read it. It's really not as bad as certain outrage sites would have you believe (again, there are aspects to criticise IMHO, but not this).
But not new, either. As you say, it (https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11...) is CRT sauce poured over non-controversial advice on teaching.
That, IMO, makes it dangerous, as it associates CRT with things everybody will agree to be good, indirectly instilling (or at least trying to do so) the notion that CRT is good.
What's important is in the concrete specs which textbook makers, curriculum designers, and other industry stakeholders will target and respond to. And under the Equitable Math program, there is simply no spec for, say, Algebra in middle school. That's what industry stakeholders and textbook writers will see.
The slightly longer answer: if you read the claim, it's just a re-warmed litany of current and past right-wing shibboleths. "Inclusions of Common Core." That one's a decade old. "The unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning in mathematics." That one's from the sixties. These are the drumbeat words pounded into the heads of the people listening to talk radio every day. The officials involved know that these phrases cause knee-jerk reactions from their base and the folks doing the banning would like those to associate positive feelings with them the next time they've got an election to win (Corcoran is a pretty well-known Republican flack).
(The comedy answer: some of the word problems probably used identifiably nontraditionally white names. And the tragic answer: the comedy answer might be right.)
I know both Florida teachers and elementary math curriculum writers. All call BS.
The latter is happy to not be the former. Republican "moms" control the schools now.
I have seen politically motivated questions pop up in math questions for my kids. For years, this is pretty standard practice in my experience. Its not an appropriate venue to promote ideas yet it is used.
I am unsurprised at the Florida announcement. But it speaks to much deeper issues in education and I'm uncertain at Florida's moves.
Can you provide examples?
The people in the examples were usually non-traditional British names like Deepak, Surinder, Jamal etc. yet such names would be very rare in a place with little immigration at that time. There would only be a handful of non British-white kids in a school of thousands.
The reaction was far from outrage just a "well I guess we are doing this now". As a kid it seemed a little silly and forced but it was my first exposure to those names in print and helped normalise such identities. I'd say it was a positive thing if a bit over done / not subtle. I'd hate to think what would have happened if the parents had mumsnet or twitter back then...
The way we teach the material changes, for valid reasons:
1. We can get better at teaching it. (Optimistically).
2. We might need to update textbooks for more up-to-date references. Even if it's not political ideas, textbooks might reference things that are not relevant (or not reference things that are).
3. Whether or not they are better, sometimes new ideas of how to teach material are created. E.g. new math etc.
Have you even tried to get the records? Or are you just complaining that they weren't provided in the announcement for your convenience?
Unbelievable.
Accusations are flying around here including calling them liars and intentionally hiding information. This is a far cry from "merely asking". Particularly since the other party isn't present in the forum, providing the avenue available to us to actually do the asking seemed reasonable to me.
Unless the point is to complain uselessly into the void because of the need for two minutes of hate against political enemies. Then I'll bow out...
I think it’s a completely fair characterization of the comment. You said:
>> Have you even tried to get the records? Or are you just complaining that they weren't provided in the announcement for your convenience?
The only fair way to read that comment is that if you haven’t gone through a FOIA process (on a holiday weekend), you can’t comment or complain about the lack of transparency in a decision.
It’s actually very common that press releases like this are offered up with appendixes that show the decision making process and examples. That didn’t happen here. It’s worth asking why and it’s worth criticizing the ruling party for not offering that information. That’s not a political statement.
> Accusations are flying around here including calling them liars and intentionally hiding information.
I didn’t make any of those accusations. I said
>> Ask the governor of Florida. He's the one who put out the press release but refuses to offer any evidence for why books were banned.
Because thus far, he is the one who has put out the informantion and has refused to provide evidence when asked (and he has been asked, as has the Department of Education). Not responding is a refusal (or worse, implying that details might not be public until the publishers have appealed). It allows people on both sides to invent reasons as to why books were banned, which doesn’t help anything. If you can’t share the details about specific books not being accepted (and I think that is a cop-out excuse), you shouldn’t issue a press release saying it is for X reason with absolutely zero evidence or context. That shouldn’t be a controversial statement or opinion.
> Unless the point is to complain uselessly into the void because of the need for two minutes of hate against political enemies. Then I'll bow out...
You seem to see this as an issue about political sides; it isn’t. I would have the exact same response if a Democratic governor issued an order without proof/evidence of why a decision was made, especially if it were blatantly about pandering to the base.
What incentive do they have to not provide details about what textbooks rejected? It would be embarrassing if they were actually transparent.
https://activisthistory.com/2021/12/15/critical-race-theory-...
"Critical theory can be a vehicle through which we embrace the political nature of mathematics education while engaging students, especially those most vulnerable in the discipline, in mathematics. Critical theory has at its center the examination of power and privilege inherent in large systems such as the system of education."
I don't have an opinion, just found the article.
For every one of you who apparently sees no problem, there is at a minimum one other who thinks you’re absolutely bonkers. Many of whom frankly are probably willing to physically fight to prevent it.
Compare to consensus on what 1+1 equals.
So, the books contained something they didn't like. One of the things they don't like is CRT.
It's not clear that any of the math books even do contain CRT based on what was said.
Circumference Radius Tangent
In that context, but 'CRT is banned'
Unless they actually tell us what they found, we really won't know. It could just be more FUD to stir up the base, actually, that is probably what it is.
You say “banning books” and people start thinking about the fascists burning things they disagreed with.
This is completely different. All the knowledge is still available in normal books and on the internet, they’re just saying that the math books submitted were not up to their requirements.
I don’t think they are banning a book, they just aren’t choosing it for their curriculum. These are very different things.
These book are bad, m’kay. Trust us. /s
Like when I took math in K-12 one thing I remember is they'd always try to be multicultural with the names in word problems and didn't just use generic white names like "John", "Adam", etc. If THIS is what they're referring to as CRT, then who cares?
They could do something more, like the problems listed here: https://www.radicalmath.org/post/addressing-systemic-racism-...
For example, something like this: "Given population estimates, how many people from each racial group are likely experiencing food insecurity across the U.S.? In your city/state?"
I don't think there's anything bad about this as long as the data is genuine. But I'd love to hear from someone of a different opinion
> What accounts for the differences in rates by race?
Yes let’s ask questions too spicy for Hacker News in public school math class.
Not necessarily. Families that rely on food stamps to survive could be considered to have poor food security. How exactly is that propaganda?
Well yes and no. No American should experience food insecurity, but also some demographics experience more food insecurity than others.
Covering up problems by referring to state-level statistics instead of looking at demographics is racist propaganda. Race is indeed a political tool, as are efforts to ignore it.
These examples aren't inflammatory unless you're in denial
You can't ask a politically-charged question in a class that has nothing to do with politics and then act surprised when people accuse you of injecting politics where it doesn't belong.
The difference is the example question isn't political, it merely puts a data set in front of students and has them analyze it.
> You can't ask a politically-charged question in a class that has nothing to do with politics
The question has nothing to do with politics. It would be political if the teacher said: "now draw these conclusions, vote for these people". I know the link I provided had questions that were more in line with this, but the specific example I gave isn't asking for any conclusions, only observations
>the specific example I gave isn't asking for any conclusions, only observations
Well, here's an observation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#/medi...
Setting the joke aside, is there really that much difference between giving you that (perfectly true) statistic and just telling you "pirates prevent global warming"?
The subject is MATH. The learning should be MATH. Other learning can happen where those types of critical thinking skills are taught.
That is not the purpose of a MATH class.
What about this hypothetical data set makes you so uncomfortable?
This isn't about me. It's about whether children should be expected to deal with irrelevant topics in class. There are an infinite number of ways to ask the same mathematical problem that don't involve political issues. But you insist that it must be so, then deny that it is so. And to cap it off, you call anyone that disagrees a racist... not flat out, through insinuation.
Bad faith argument.
Generally, most framing in the western world is self serving to a particular group of people, so these kinds of facts don't go over so well.
Maybe check the statistics on that one.
If anything, what you are saying is racist and discounts ever person in the government and military that is not 'white' , a bizarre category of not actually being a race that is invented for arguments like your own
How many of the commanders in chief were non-white?
I rest my case.
Some facts can be both true and inflammatory. Complex and nuanced topics should be approached with respect, as it is very easy to mislead or confuse, especially children.
Imagine using homicide offense rate by race to teach fractions for an example how someone could draw wild conclusions from accurate facts. If a teacher used the example black men are 7 times more likely than white men as a math example, it would be incredibly reckless.
Race is a very loaded topic. You could teach a college course on this fact and still start to scratch the surface.
Real mathematicians respect math
This need to ground the instruction in practical examples applies especially to statistics in schools where the most relatable population for discussing populations is the human population.
The history of erasing inconvenient populations by various deliberate or accidental means such as focussing on outcomes rather than causes is something that absolutely does need to be taught as part of a statistics course. When studying the physical properties of gasses we don’t ignore the spurious peaks in excitation data, we look for explanations as to why those two peaks in the hydrogen excitation experiment occurred. Binning by wider excitation ranges would have helped erase those anomalies, but the scientists chose to ask the question rather than hide the uncomfortable facts (“eliminate the outliers”).
We necessarily should be asking political questions in statistics because most statistics are innately tied to human behaviour, not pure mathematics or science. Are there more people working in maths and physics or law enforcement and legislation?
The best way to educate future statisticians about invisible populations is to teach them about the mistakes of the past. These mistakes include for example focussing on which current populations commit the most violent domestic crimes per capita without thinking to ask why people commit crime, and then comparing per capita crime rates to the various causative factors of crime (which might be for example wealth, access to employment, police hours per capita).
Everything is politics, any time there are one or more people involved. There is no escaping this even in mathematics. To pretend otherwise is to reinforce the erasure of oppressed populations such as women and non-majority races/cultures (and note that using the word “cultures” instead of “races” doesn’t stop you being racist).
Essay topic for today: is there race or gender discrimination in physics and maths employment in the USA? Why are there so few women in STEM and where do populations start to become more distinct? Is the bimodal distribution of various characteristics by sex sufficient to explain the male dominance of mathematics and physics and the rapid decline of female populations from high school through to the end of a bachelors degree? Are there factors apart from IQ that can explain the lack of women in STEM?
And for it to carry a controversial social message will cause friction in an institution that includes all political tribes, which detracts from the non-ideological education mission.
I don't think this word problem carries a social message, it just puts data in front of students and asks them to compare different categories. There would be a social message if the problem was normative, like "because these differences exist, ___ is the answer". But that kind of thinking isn't really math, it would be better suited to something like social studies or language arts
Figuring out "how many people from each racial group are likely experiencing food insecurity across the U.S." is an everyday problem?
>I don't think this word problem carries a social message, it just puts data in front of students and asks them to compare different categories.
The message is not in the question itself or in the data, but in the fact that this particular question was chosen in favor of any other. Would you think I don't have any ulterior motive if I asked "these are the arrest statistics across the US, tabulated by race. What conclusions can be drawn from this?"?
It's more of an everyday problem than just giving students unlabeled categories.
> Would you think I don't have any ulterior motive if I asked "these are the arrest statistics across the US, tabulated by race. What conclusions can be drawn from this?"?
If by "ulterior motive" you mean raising awareness about different socioeconomic cohorts in American society, I have no issue with those kinds of motives.
If the stance was more aggressive e.g. "you need to draw these conclusions from these numbers and support this kind of policy", that's essentially indoctrination and we can both agree that it's out of place in any genuine education.
But just raising awareness about different demographics and socioeconomic groups and encouraging discussion (in a way that's open, socratic, with minimal teacher intervention): this I have no issue with.
For the record, if it was a question about hate crimes or serial killers I would also oppose it for the exact same reason
The problem with this isn't the facts being presented, but the fact that when these sort of facts are needlessly inserted into every possible area of a child's education that child will then have a fundamentally different outlook and racial division will only rise as these differences are expounded
It could. I don't disagree with this objection, but at the same time this argument isn't just confined to math but also other subjects. I think that trying to cover up current socioeconomic divisions is on par with covering up less tasteful parts of US history, both are whitewashing. The world isn't perfect, we shouldn't pretend that it is
> The problem with this isn't the facts being presented, but the fact that when these sort of facts are needlessly inserted into every possible area of a child's education that child will then have a fundamentally different outlook and racial division will only rise as these differences are expounded
I wouldn't describe acknowledging things that elicit discomfort as "needless insertions". Also they aren't inserted everywhere (as far as I know...)
I don't think acknowledging a situation will necessarily exacerbate it. I think the first step to moving beyond a situation is acknowledging it
https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2019/topic-pages/offenders
- NYT: Should Social Justice Be Part of Math Education? Proposed guidelines in California would de-emphasize calculus, reject the idea that some children are naturally gifted, and build a connection to social justice. [1]
- Math Suffers From White Supremacy, According to a Bill Gates-Funded Course. "White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when... The focus is on getting the 'right' answer." [2]
[1] https://archive.ph/Dm1HH
[2] https://www.newsweek.com/math-suffers-white-supremacy-accord...
So many comments seem to question the veracity of the claim and dismiss it entirely as a political move when this is something that is being adopted and used to indoctrinate
Edit: at the time of me writing the initial response.
As far as (2), you can read the equitablemath.org worksheet here: https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11...
It appears that you cut-off a quote. The full quote is: There is a greater focus on getting the "right" answer than understanding concepts and reasoning.
You may still disagree with that! But just for the sake of addressing arguments fairly, worth not butchering what people are trying to communicate. It's a fair thing to argue that what matters is students understanding WHY something is right rather than just getting the answer correct.
1) On one hand the worksheet offers pretty solid common-sense math education advice;
2) but also, it peppers this with very odd unsubstantiated claims and accusations of "racism" and "white supremacy" that make no sense at all.
If you say "this is good math advice" then you're right, but if you say "this is piece of unsubstantiated nonsense" then you're also right.
I'm annoyed that the stupid "getting the right answer is racist"-line keeps coming up, as you said I think accuracy is important. But I'm also annoyed at the authors of that paper for covering good math advice in such weird muddled stuff that's easily open to misinterpretation.
--------
Let's start with the one mentioned by OP that targets teachers across multiple states (California, Oregon, ) https://equitablemath.org/
"In an email sent out by the Oregon Department of Education, teachers were encouraged to enroll in a course called 'A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction.' The course came with an 82-page instructional guide that lists the ways in which white supremacy is perpetuated in math class. 'White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,' the guide reads. 'Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.' The guide offers a year-long framework for 'deconstructing racism in mathematics.' It calls for 'visibilizing [sic] the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture with respect to math.' Examples of classroom actions that allegedly perpetuate white supremacy include asking students to show their work, focusing on getting the right answer, tracking student success, and grading students. "
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jun/6/is-mathemati... "California’s Instructional Quality Commission is considering introducing into classrooms across the state a modified version of “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction,”
----
‘Decolonise’ maths by subtracting white male viewpoint, urges Durham University A new guide says professors must question themselves if they are citing work from ‘mostly white or male’ mathematicians https://archive.ph/O0Itb
“decolonising the mathematical curriculum means considering the cultural origins of the mathematical concepts, focusses, and notation we most commonly use.” “[T]he question of whether we have allowed Western mathematicians to dominate in our discipline is no less relevant than whether we have allowed western authors to dominate the field of literature. It may even be more important, if only because mathematics is rather more central to the advancement of science than is literature.”
----
Ontario Dept of Education Grade 9 Mathematics Curriculum: Math has Euro-centric, colonial, and racist (of course) roots and we have to teach students the history of that. And that Math can be subjective
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/07/ontario-math-is-subjec... "Changes to Ontario’s math curriculum announced last year by Education Minister Stephen Lecce will include a ‘subjective’ and ‘decolonial’ approach to mathematics, according to documents posted on the ministry’s website. 'Mathematics is often positioned as an objective and pure discipline,' reads a section of an online brief highlighting the ‘vision and goals’ of the updated curriculum. 'However, the content and the context in which it is taught, the mathematicians who are celebrated, and the importance that is placed upon mathematics by society are subjective.' Math, it continues, has been 'used to normalize racism and marginalization of non-Eurocentric mathematical knowledges,' and explains that taking a 'decolonial' and 'anti-racis...
For example,you list
> It still says that as a math teacher it's your job to remove the thing stopping minorites from succeeding which obviously must be inequity, racism, and discrimation. "Research indicates that there are groups of students (for example, Indigenous students, Black students, students experiencing homelessness, students living in poverty, students with LGBTQ+ identities, and students with special education needs and disabilities) who continue to experience systemic barriers to accessing high-level instruction in and support with learning mathematics. Systemic barriers, such as racism, implicit bias, and other forms of discrimination, can result in inequitable academic and life outcomes, such as low confidence in one’s ability to learn mathematics, reduced rates of credit completion, and leaving the secondary school system prior to earning a diploma. Achieving equitable outcomes in mathematics for all students requires educators to be aware of and identify these barriers, as well as the ways in which they can overlap and intersect, which can compound their effect on student well-being, student success, and students’ experiences in the classroom and in the school. Educators must not only know about these barriers, they must work actively and with urgency to address and remove them." https://www.dcp.edu.gov.on.ca/en/curriculum/secondary-mathem...
Based on that snippet, it seems to be saying that if a teacher is being straight up racist, e.g. marking black students differently than white students for the same work (or perhaps something more subtle), that is wrong and should be stopped.
Is that really what you want to use as an example of inapropriate political interference in the classroom?
According to some of these teaching guides, the first one recommended by State Depts. of Education, things such as the concept of grading work, expecting assignments to be turned in, etc. All are "systemic" (common features of the learning system), and now "racist", therefore "systemic racism". That's the "beauty" of their way of writing. It can mean anything they want at anytime, and is framed in such a way that calling them out automatically "undermines" (to use your term) yourself for investigating their gelatinous word-soup common in their writing. Even asking questions about it you find yourself Kafkatrapped.
"We are pro-good, anti-bad. What kind of person would you need to be to even ask questions about it in the first place in this day and age. Wow, really says a lot about you. Be better and do the work." That's just gossip, moralizing, shaming, all dressed-up and using the shield of academicism. It shares many characteristics with religion from a century or two ago, certainly its tribalism and fervor.
> Worth noting: The education department described the review process as "transparent," but did not name the rejected textbooks nor provide examples of passages that failed to meet the criteria.
I'm not from the US, but I fail to see how Californian guidelines are relevant in that regard, however bad they might be.
I understand that the phrase "white supremacy" is equated with the idea that "people who identify as white are superior" (bad). I also understand the immediate reaction is to possibly think "I am not a bad person and I identify as white, so there must be something wrong here". When you then tie it to a concept like math, the next thought then tends to go to "how can a concept, not a person, like math, inherit a bad human trait like superiority"? It can't, so therefore there must be something wrong with these ideas.
If you look at the curriculum text from equitablemath.org and peek at page 9: https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11..., there is a nuance here that I'm hoping to clarify to those who may feel the above.
First, the argument is not referring to a person, but a culture. Another way to think about it is a system. In this context, the system simply refers to the current methods of teaching.
If we all agree that the goal is to encourage as many people as possible to participate in STEM, enjoy it, thrive in it, and feel supported in it and we all agree that the data and studies show that our current system could be improved to accomplish this goal, the next conclusion is to criticize the system of which we teach fundamental concepts, like math.
Within our current system (or culture), we teach math a certain way. Some of those ways emphasize independent practice, mistakes are failure, teaching concepts linearly, and/or grading students based on what they don't know.
Because a lot of us learned this way and we are in the STEM field, we may ask ourselves "what is wrong with that?"
The argument is not that you don't have a legitimate question. The argument is that stopping at the question does not achieve the goal. After years and years of social science study of what prevents people of color from getting into STEM fields (if you don't believe these studies exist, that is ok, but only encourage your own investigation), the argument of "white supremacy culture in math" is providing points of how to center the experiences of people in color within the curriculum of teaching math to increase the thing we all seem to claim we want: the pipeline.
As a Black man, its really hard to be a part of this community and see people argue that is a pipeline problem, see scholars provide solutions to address the pipeline, then see those same people say "but why do we have to change anything, why is this relevant?"
At this point, it just feels like some people actually don't want a solution. Even if this doesn't work, why are we afraid to try? Isn't that the point of being part of the scientific community?
Instead, we're stuck demonizing the motives of people we don't know who are trying to help others who may be outside of our own bubble.
> After years and years of social science study of what prevents people of color from getting into STEM fields (if you don't believe these studies exist, that is ok, but only encourage your own investigation), the argument of "white supremacy culture in math" is providing points of how to center the experiences of people in color within the curriculum of teaching math to increase the thing we all seem to claim we want: the pipeline.
"Prevents"? Surely there are physicists and mathematicians graduating in majority non-white countries. Somehow I doubt they teach mathematics in a radically different way. If that's the case then I don't see how doing anything to the curriculum could have any effect.
Anybody that has gone to school or otherwise suffered an institution is keenly aware that the major failure mode of institutions is trying to push top-down models that don't respect the individual details of their members. Taking it as a given that different people have their own individual learning style - why wouldn't we want to, for each individual, determine a teaching approach that best suits them? There will likely be correlation between race and learning style, but why should we take that as a fundamental given and leave behind all of those students who don't fit that simple model?
For example, from page 10 of the pdf you linked:
> Design homework policies that are responsive to the lives of students of color in order to support their learning needs.
Shouldn't homework policies be responsive to all students home lives? What is special about "of color" that makes for a different home life, beyond being correlated to other qualities that would be more appropriate to speak in terms of?
I'll give you that there is an issue of latent racism where a teacher will/may be less understanding to a minority, but it seems like addressing this issue directly makes more sense, rather than thinking it will fall out of some overabstracted general concern. Reading that pdf gives me the same exact feeling I had reading "literature" in college that mostly consisted of ambiguous postmodern rambling, where the only winning move was to regurgitate the themes and phrases the professor themselves had said. Such antirealism is not a foundation for reforming society.
(Having said that, I think this "CRT" political trope is mostly just a bogeyman)
Why not try? Because this is the wrong method. Kids hardly learn math as it is. Confounding their learning with other factors will only make the whole situation worse.
Read these comments and try to understand why people are opposed to these methods. Force divisive topics into the classroom and no one will learn
How about we simply wait for those books' authors to complain and then we can identify, read, and judge? The internet is going haywire over something they don't know anything about, it's ridiculous.
How can they complain, they literally don't know they've been banned.
> The internet is going haywire over something they don't know anything about, it's ridiculous.
The internet is going haywire about the government banning textbooks while refusing to make public what books and why. I'd say anyone trying to pretend this is ok is being ridiculous.
Good point. My thought is they'll find out when their books aren't used in Florida.
> The internet is going haywire about the government banning textbooks while refusing to make public what books and why. I'd say anyone trying to pretend this is ok is being ridiculous.
The government isn't simply "banning textbooks": they're banning books with controversial political messages being shown to the most psychologically vulnerable population: elementary children. Until we know the details, I have no issue with other math books with no politics being used.
They say they are, while refusing to say what books or why. I fail to see why the government deserves the benefit of the doubt while maintaining this kind secrecy over something that has zero reason not to be transparent if true.