This sort of thing, and the shutdowns, is going to drive a lot of kids into private schools, to the detriment of public schools. A new segregation in the making.
My high school was one of the first magnet schools in the USA, Ben Franklin in New Orleans. A committee of rabid professional activists want to rename it because Franklin owned a couple of slaves; later in life he was an active abolitionist.
Most of the alumni say that if it's renamed, they will donate no more.
The same sort of activist nonsense is invading music and science and STEM education, the idea of cultural dominance, basically guilt tripping as a profession.
A minority of motivated kids will still do hard math and design electronics that works. The real damage will be to the more average kid. Imagine a technician who was educated to believe that math and science are not objective, namely racist and euro-centric, that there is no right answer.
And 2800 comments by Breitbart readers 99% of whom can't do basic algebra. Money well-spent.
Stymied in their sad attempt to overthrow a democratically-elected government, the right is all-in on this "culture war" stuff, now, having no ideas left of note.
I hope they run Tucker Carlson on his 100% white nationalist candidate in 2024, I don't see any reason not to at this point. Fur die Volk achtung mein Furher into zee boxcars wit die untermenschen, heil mein Waffen SS!
The majority of pure-blood Aryan Americans of high genetic pedigree will learn absolutely nothing from their high school mathematics classes, and be proud of it. The motivated kids will always find a way.
I read some of the PDF the article is based on and I agree that while much of it is in NewSpeak, some points were valid.
Suggesting considering the student's background for attaching relevancy to their learning is certainly a valid teaching method.
Asking why Pythagorean’s system is named after the guy when it was in use previously seems to ask the question of why name anything?
However it then goes on as a further example of a teaching style and background with:
---------(quote)------------ Incorporate the history of mathematics into lessons.
Verbal Example: Why do you think we call it Pythagorean’s theorem, when it was used before he was even born? What should we call it instead?
Classroom Activity: Learn about different bases and numerical ideas: Base 2, binary and connections to computer programming, how the Yoruba of Nigeria used base 20, and how the Mayans conceptualized the number 0 before the first recording of it.
Professional Development: Learn the history of mathematics. Take a course, go to a conference, read historically and culturally accurate books, and use the resources in this workbook. Focus on different approaches to learning concepts.
---------(end quote)----------
In conclusion, not having read or digested the entire document, some parts I disagree with, and many parts seem to be valid for asking teachers to consider how they teach not just what they teach - and that makes for a better teacher/student interaction as far as I can see.
I did not see any obvious examples where the correct answers to the math questions (2 x 2 = 4) were not important.
--------(quote)------------ Addressing mistakes.
Though math teachers often tout the phrase “mistakes are expected, respected, inspected, and corrected,” their practices don’t always align. Teachers often treat mistakes as problems by equating them with wrongness, rather than treating them opportunities for learning—which reinforces the ideas of perfectionism (that students shouldn’t make mistakes) and paternalism (teachers or other experts can and should correct mistakes).
-------------(end quote)-----------
As a bit of background - I was a school trustee in Vancouver, BC for 6 years back in the 90s.
It never hurts to go to the source in my experience...
The right-wing notion that "With this new stuff, right answer won't matter at all. you can say 2 + 2 = 5 and the teacher will say this is equally valid" is one of those sad inventions of propaganda designed to scare lil ol ladies, and anyone who's never set foot inside a college or university in 40 years.
All the wildest fantasies about what happens there are valid and very terrifying. Millions of Americans will end up not being able to do "real math"! Like the US educational system isn't very efficient at that outcome already!
Yeah I was assuming a comparison against first-world populations, got me there. A comparison against humans who never even had the opportunity to have 12 years of public education isn't a particularly high bar, though...
I'll need some kind of evidence you've never engaged in America-hating type activities, citizen.
You don't seem to understand what is actually going on here. I am guessing that you haven't studied the problem.
Its an implementation of the incredulous insane Critical Race Theory (CTR) twaddle that will literally destroy all progress.
Its stating that "the goal of getting the correct answer is racist". This is truly insane. Its gaslighting to the extreme.
CRT explicitly rejects logic, empirical evidence, and everything that make the world go round. Sure, once in while it has a result that might make sense. This is just an irrelevant random occurrence. Its a religious cult. seriously. Its a religion. All religions pop out a valid point now and again.
U.S. wasn't exactly setting the world on fire with its intellectual brilliance prior to this. Never has. There was a brief cold war /space race type of phony intensification of developing some capability, but like most worthwhile endeavors, throwing money at it didn't work. Even harboring and using Nazi war criminals really didn't do it for them. The end result was tons of money flushed down the drain with nothing to show for it and a country facing imminent bankruptcy, starved of all the infrastructural and other essentials that define an advanced nation. The U.S. is not an advanced nation. Civilization will get along just fine without the "educated elite" of the U.S.
They're probably planning to give some people who aren't white some power. I can certainly see how this would annoy followers of the religion called "White Power!"
You hear some push back from a few prof's. But I get the feeling most are keeping their heads down. There are good people at universities, but the education system seems bent on breaking itself.
I said "you got me there" with respect to this very pedantic rejoinder to my offhand addendum, I'll send you an official victory certificate if ya want, damn.
What's also remarkable though is just how much money the US spends to be at the bottom of all the countries that are more numerate than the US, and spend less.
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The problem areas seem to be in the man related to applying what's been learned to real world situations. Like applied math, like one might do in engineering. Kids test okay, so long as you don't go too far outside the bounds of the test.
A good book on the topic, probably 30 years old now. Not a lot has changed:
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It's strange how many people in the US seem to be openly proud of being "bad with numbers." I've had people in coffee shops ask me what I'm reading and when I say it's a book on mathematics they often reply "Oh, I was never any good at math..." if I said I was reading a novel would they say "Oh, I'm actually illiterate I was never any good at reading."
I'm not great at doing math in my head and I sometimes don't recall the edge-cases of my multiplication tables. This isn't the kind of stuff that matters for engineering, though, only party tricks.
Last time the government around here tried to integrate some people who aren't white into "mainstream culture" by fiat, the mainstream culture tried to bash a man's head in with a flagpole.
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Maybe someday mainstream culture will figure out what it really wants.
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