Liberal math

[ajax18]

This is Orwellian. Anyone who argues 2+2=4 is a racist. Maybe Jersey Girl is this what you taught kids in New Jersey? Perhaps it explains some things.


Fox News reported that the ODE sent out a newsletter last week that mentions a “Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course” that will occur on February 21. The course, according to Fox, is designed for middle school teachers to make use of a toolkit for ‘dismantling racism in mathematics.’”

The newsletter encourages teachers to sign up for the training, which the New York Post previously reported includes a section with 14 things associated with “White Supremacy Culture,” including perfectionism, objectivity, and individualism.

Objectivity is described in the workbook accompanying the training as “the belief that there is such a thing as being objective or ‘neutral.'” The program’s toolkit also encourages teachers not to focus on a single correct answer, but to “come up with at least two answers that might solve this problem” and to “Challenge standardized test questions by getting the ‘right’ answer, but justify other answers by unpacking the assumptions that are made in the problem.”

The toolkit also asks instructors to “center ethnomathematics” in multiple ways, one of which is to “identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist.

Part of the toolkit includes a list of ways “white supremacy culture” allegedly “infiltrates math classrooms.” Those include “the focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer,” students being “required to ‘show their work,’” and other alleged manifestations.

“The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so,” the document for the “Equitable Math” toolkit reads. “Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict.”

ODE Communications Director Marc Siegel confirmed to Fox News that the educational program was being advertised and defended it, claiming the training “helps educators learn key tools for engagement, develop strategies to improve equitable outcomes for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, and join communities of practice.”

This is simply the latest in a string of “anti-racism” teachings that insist the core of education is based on white supremacy. As The Daily Wire has documented, San Francisco has been intently focused on race in recent weeks instead of the growing number of student suicides and mental health crises caused by the continuous closure of schools.

While students suffer, the school district seems more concerned with tackling race perceptions, focusing on renaming schools based on historically inaccurate information and debating the racial makeup of an all-female volunteer council. As The Daily Wire reported, the San Francisco school board spent two hours debating whether the gay father of a mixed-race child was diverse enough to sit on a parent advisory council that was currently made up of only women and had additional open seats. The school board has also spent time renaming numerous public schools based on a historically inaccurate Google Doc and claiming acronyms are a “symptom of white supremacy culture” while replacing one acronym with another

https://www.dailywire.com/news/oregon-p ... benshapiro

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I have no idea what Xanax posted because I have him on ignore, but I imagine it's something like:



- Doc

[Bret Ripley]

I have no idea what Xanax posted because I have him on ignore ...

- Doc

Cliff notes version: the Oregon Department of Education put out a newsletter for Black History Month that lists some educational resources for teachers. The bastards.

Or something like that, probably -- he pasted a Daily Wire story but I sort of dozed off in the middle so I went straight to the source link, dozed off in the middle of that so went to their source link (a Fox News story) and by now very much in the mood to 'cut out the middleman' went straight to their source, which was this:

https://content.govdelivery.com/account ... mzcV9DuQdg

It took Fox News about a week to find a way to be outraged by this, and a couple more days for Daily Wire to decide that this sort of dedicated work deserved to be snowballed.

It must be exhausting living life as a tempest in search of a teapot.

[Icarus]

Hard to imagine why people keeping considering Republicans racists when they're always expressing faux outrage over every little thing pertaining to race.

[Gadianton]

I have to say, Ajax, given all the recent events, you're really reaching to find something to take offense at. The NYP article is from may 2019. The Fox article is recent, but this appears so be an optional course as part of continuing education. I mean, who cares?

The wrapper around the course, taking aim at math teaching with pseudo postmodern theory is pretty hokey. Other than by making the reasonable assumption that methods of teaching within a power structure might seek to preserve that power structure and ours leans toward white males, I don't see how the various line items necessarily connect to "white supremacy". That being said, the instructor is probably just trying to be quirky and using hyperbole to generate interest. If Ajax can get him to sign up for this forum, I'll grill him pretty good about it. I don't think this kind of shock approach will ultimately be helpful.

Here is the .pdf Fox's cursory hyperventilation covers:

https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/up ... TRIDE1.pdf

Math teachers ask students to show work so that teachers know what students are thinking, but that centers the
teacher’s need to understand rather than student learning. It becomes a crutch for teachers seeking to understand
what students are thinking and less of a tool for students in learning how to process. Thus, requiring students to
show their work reinforces worship of the written word as well as paternalism.

Up to the last sentence, this instructor might be partially right. The last sentence is pretty ridiculous.

His answer:

Ask other questions that will demonstrate learning
when it is not clear to you how students know the
answer.
• Verbal Example: If you were working with a fellow
mathematician who was absent this day, what might
you tell them to help them learn it?
• Classroom Activity: Number talks, where students
have to engage with mental mathematics not limited
to computations.
• Professional Development: As a department, solve
complex problems without writing and share with
each other about that process

All of these are good ideas. Learning math should be more conceptual and there should be more focus on understanding the concept rather than mimicking the mechanics. I could see how these suggestions would augment, but not supplant showing work, if that's what he really means.

It actually looks like a pretty good course if you get past the wrapper.

But seriously, Ajax, "This is Orwellian."

But it's not Orwellian of Trump or his followers to overturn the election by obvious lies, coercion and violence?

Out of the two problems, this is the one you're going to lose sleep over.

[ajax18]

Asking kids to show there work in algebra is clearly racist.

Mathematics is racist. Perhaps this says more about the racism of those who make such accusations than it does about mathematics.

But on the other hand math was discovered by white men so the subject must be racist.

[Gadianton]

But on the other hand math was discovered by white men so the subject must be racist.

The most ancient mathematical texts available are from Mesopotamia and Egypt –

Mesopotamians and Egyptians were white?

Is that what they teach you in the south, along with the south really won the civil war?

[honorentheos]

Asking kids to show there work in algebra is clearly racist.

Mathematics is racist. Perhaps this says more about the racism of those who make such accusations than it does about mathematics.

But on the other hand math was discovered by white men so the subject must be racist.

I get it, Ajax. It's hard to feel morally superior after the last few months so any little thing that allows you to feel like you are still on the side of right has to do a lot of lifting. Even if that means being wrong about the underlying facts. The need transcends the truth.

[Bret Ripley]

Asking kids to show there work in algebra is clearly racist.

Mathematics is racist. Perhaps this says more about the racism of those who make such accusations than it does about mathematics.

But on the other hand math was discovered by white men so the subject must be racist.

Hmmm ... I'm willing to give you Mulligan on this one, but next time maybe try it with just a hint of philosophic detachment.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Mesopotamians and Egyptians were white?

I've seen this talked about on /pol/ quite a bit, at least, with regard to Egyptians. They do believe Egyptians, the ruling class, were white. I just googled 'were Mesopotamians white?' on duckduckgo and the top link was to a Stormfront discussion laying out their arguments that various populations in the region were Caucasoid. I'm not going to link to it so if you're curious about the discussion you'll have to find it.

That said, I typed 'who invented math' and this was the top link:

https://interestingengineering.com/who- ... ented-math

tl;dr - everyone and no one at the same time

China - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_mathematics

India - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_mathematics

May - https://mayansandtikal.com/mayan-civili ... cs-History

History of mathematics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematics

So, it seems to me that mathematics is to have been a sort of natural emergence for various populations once they hit a sort of critical mass where astronomy, agriculture, and trade is a part of their culture.

- Doc