True or False: There is at least one subject in our schools\u2019 curriculum that cannot be taught from a racist perspective, and that subject is mathematics. Math is pure; it is unsullied by bias; it is the \u201cGreat Equalizer\u201d of the classroom. It doesn\u2019t care what color your skin is, where your ancestors came from, who or what you worship. But\u2026.<\/p>\n
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According to California\u2019s Instructional Quality Commission, the answer is \u201cfalse.\u201d What? That can\u2019t be right. Two plus two equals four; the square root of 81 is 9; any positive number raised to the zero power is one. These \u201ctruths\u201d exist independent of any form of human bias. The state commission disagrees.<\/p>\n
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On January 22, the 18-member committee approved seven goals that it set for itself. Goal Three is to \u201cprovide support for the 2021 revision of the Mathematics Framework\u2026.\u201d The \u201cframework\u201d is composed of \u201c5 Strides on the Path to Math Equity.\u201d And, Stride 1 is \u201cDismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction.\u201d The committee met last week and will meet again in August to reaffirm its determination to put an end to \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d in the teaching of math.<\/p>\n
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Math, according to the document, should be taught in such a way that it can be used for \u201csocial justice.\u201d Mathematics is a tool to \u201cchange the world,\u201d and math teachers should mentor their pupils in ways that will encourage students to develop a \u201csociopolitical consciousness.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Honest. These statements are part of the written framework. Teachers are admonished for addressing students\u2019 mistakes, requiring students to show their work, and grading them on \u201cgetting the right answer.\u201d Such practices, according to the framework, are indicators of \u201cwhite supremacy culture in the mathematics classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The document explains that promoting the concept that \u201cthere are always right and wrong answers perpetuates \u2018objectivity.\u2019\u201d This concept of \u201cmathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false.\u201d So, under the new guidelines, is \u201cobjectivity\u201d a bad thing?<\/p>\n
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Let\u2019s say that I have three students in an online math class, and I give them a problem in beginning algebra. I don\u2019t know who any of the students are, nor do I know their race, ethnicity, gender, or religion. The problem is \u201cx divided by 8 plus 14 divided by 8 equals 2. Solve for \u201cx.\u201d Student A says 30, student B says 2, and student C says 16. The correct answer is 2. (2 divided by 8 plus 14 divided by 8 equals 16 divided by 8, and 16 divided by 8 equals 2.) That is the \u201cobjective\u201d answer.<\/p>\n
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According to the new guidelines, I can\u2019t grade student B as having a correct answer and, therefore by implication, letting students A and C know that their answers are incorrect. But, failure to correct students is just that: failure.<\/p>\n
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Through my first 15 years of school, I always spelled the word that means \u201cto be\u201d this way: existance. During my senior year of college, one professor circled the word and noted \u201cSp\u201d (meaning \u201cspelling\u201d) in the margin of my paper. By that time in my educational career, I\u2019d written \u201cexistance\u201d so often that I did not accept my professor\u2019s correction on face value. I opened my dictionary and looked for the word. \u201cExistance\u201d was not in the book, but \u201cexistence\u201d was. I thanked my professor for catching the error. Had it not been for Dr. Henry Pitchford, I\u2019d still be misspelling the word because I would have had no reason to change.<\/p>\n
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So, with regard to the math problem above, if students A and C are not corrected, how will they ever know that their computations were wrong? The math teacher who does not show them how to correct their method of solving the problem has failed them. The mathematics has nothing to do with bias or discrimination. It\u2019s an objective tool, in the same way that a hammer is an objective tool. If you are banging a nail into a wall and hit your thumb with the hammer, it is not the hammer\u2019s fault. Ah, but here\u2019s where the California Commission comes into play.<\/p>\n
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According to the new guidelines, math teachers must help students to \u201cdevelop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order.\u201d Math according to the doctrine is a \u201ctool for social activism.\u201d<\/p>\n
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I wonder if \u201csocial activism\u201d was in the mind of the man who built the first clock in America. He was Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), an African American who was a self-taught mathematician and who also accurately forecast lunar and solar eclipses. <\/p>\n
Was \u201cpolitical agitation\u201d a goal of Katherine Johnson (1918-2020), an African American who held a Ph.D. degree in mathematics from West Virginia University and provided the orbital entry and launch window calculations that enabled John Glenn\u2019s orbit around the moon and also coordinated the Apollo moon landing?<\/p>\n
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Do you think that Dr. Gladys West (1930), an African American, was contemplating cultural relevancy when she laid the groundwork for the invention of one of the most indispensable technological wonders of the modern world, the global positioning system (GPS)?<\/p>\n
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California, which was once an education model for the entire world, is already so politically correct that I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s okay to use a public men\u2019s room, hug a close female friend, or use the personal pronouns he\/him\/his. We are now poised to become the global court jester.<\/p>\n
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\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
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Jim Glynn es Profesor Em\u00e9rito de Sociolog\u00eda. Se le puede contactar en j_glynn@att.net.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" True or False: There is at least one subject in our schools\u2019 curriculum that cannot be taught from a racist perspective, and that subject is mathematics. Math is pure; it is unsullied by bias; it is the \u201cGreat Equalizer\u201d of the classroom. It doesn\u2019t care what color your skin is, where your ancestors came from, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[32,34,39,46,50,51],"class_list":["post-6804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-culture","tag-education","tag-government","tag-organizations","tag-schools","tag-science"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maderatribune.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}