Racial equity is important, but it doesn't trump the right to excel

 James S. Robbins is another voice of sanity in the education debate.

The intellectual nadir of the attack on achievement is the emergence of “ethnomathematics,” which seeks to “dismantle racism” by promoting notions such as math not being objective and deemphasizing the focus on getting the “right answer.” The Oregon Department of Education promoted a professional development course on Equitable Math Instruction, and the California draft Mathematics Framework document promotes these concepts.

 

This strain of thought would have the practical effect of giving those students who struggle with math a moral justification for not getting any better and notifying those who are gifted that there is probably something wrong with them. If this framework spreads, it could condemn a generation of children to irrelevance in science, technology, engineering and math fields, where the right answer is not a matter of opinion.

Contrast the ethnomathematics message with the inspirational subject of the movie “Hidden Figures.” That film lauded the contributions of three African American women working for NASA in the early 1960s, using their superior math skills to support America in the Cold War space race while overcoming segregation-era institutional racism. This is the type of uplifting math story that kids of color need to hear, not divisive nonsense about how having to “show your work” is inherently racist. 

We need more sanity.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Contributing to the Dumbing Down of Math Education.

 I found this article a few days ago, and I was going to post a short diatribe, but you know how it is. You get busy. Time gets away from you, and moves on. Time cares for none of us. The article is from Fox News about a teacher program in Oregon that "seeks to undo 'racism in mathematics.'"

An ODE newsletter sent last week advertises a Feb. 21 "Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course," which is designed for middle school teachers to make use of a toolkit for "dismantling racism in mathematics." The event website identifies the event as a partnership between California's San Mateo County Office of Education, The Education Trust-West and others. 

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."

The ODE, led by Colt Gill, confirmed the letter to Fox News. ODE Communications Director Marc Siegel also defended the "Equitable Math" educational program, saying it "helps educators learn key tools for engagement, develop strategies to improve equitable outcomes for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, and join communities of practice."

Here is a link to the Dismantling Racism workbook. Going through it, I learned that "worship of the written word promotes 'white supremacist thinking' and is one characteristic of white supremacy," which apparently is rampant in American society.

• if it’s not in a memo, it doesn’t exist 
• the organization does not take into account or value other ways in which information gets shared 

• those with strong documentation and writing skills are more highly valued, even in organizations where ability to relate to others is key to the mission

Another characteristic of white supremacy is objectivity.

• the belief that there is such a thing as being objective or ‘neutral’ 

• the belief that emotions are inherently destructive, irrational, and should not play a role in decision-making or group process 

• invalidating people who show emotion 

• requiring people to think in a linear (logical) fashion and ignoring or invalidating those who think in other ways 

• impatience with any thinking that does not appear ‘logical’

In the toolkit, entitled "A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction" we learn that teachers should

DESIGN A CULTURALLY SUSTAINING MATH SPACE 

• Use culturally relevant, antiracist pedagogy, practices, and curriculum. 

• Cultivate mathematical identity so that everyone can see themselves as mathematicians. 

• Adapt homework policies to fit the needs of students of color. 

•Recognize and name the mathematical successes of students of color, and teach them to recognize successes in themselves and others. 

• Intentionally integrate physical movement in math classes. 

CENTER ETHNOMATHEMATICS 

• Recognize the ways that communities of color engage in mathematics and problem solving in their everyday lives. 

• Teach that mathematics can help solve problems affecting students’ communities. Model the use of math as a solution to their immediate problems, needs, or desires. 

• Identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views. 

• Teach the value of math as both an abstract concept and as a useful everyday tool. 

• Expose students to examples of people who have used math as resistance. Provide learning opportunities that use math as resistance

There are 82 pages of crazy.

Teachers already have enough to do in the classroom without adding another layer non-educational indoctrination replacing teaching and engaging in the further dumbing down of American education, especially when so few high school graduates currently are proficient in math.

Making this even worse is that this program was paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A radical new push to purge math curricula of allegedly racist practices like showing your work and finding the correct answer is bankrolled by one of the nation's most prominent nonprofits: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Gates Foundation is the only donor mentioned on the homepage of A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction, a group of 25 education organizations whose curriculum states that asking students to show their work and find the right answer is an inherently racist practice.

Over the past decade, the Gates Foundation has given upward of $140 million to some of the groups behind Pathway, whose antiracist resources are the basis for a new teacher training course offered by the Oregon Department of Education.

The Education Trust, a California-based group that promoted the September release of Pathway's antiracist "toolkit," has received $86 million from the Gates Foundation, including a $3.6 million grant awarded in June.

Teach Plus, another group dedicated to creating an antiracist culture in K-12 schools, has received more than $27 million from the Gates Foundation. The group's board members include former Democratic congressman George Miller and Obama-era secretary of education John King Jr.—who is also the president of The Education Trust. 

I wonder, with these new obstructions to math education being added in Oregon, and which will surely be added to other states' math curricula, how many potential Microsoft employees will have their math skills hobbled to the point where they have no chance of performing the tasks necessary to work creating the next generations of computers, programs, phones, and other high tech gadgets. 

Hey, Black Lives Matter: Do You Really Want China to Run the World?

 This is by David P. Goldman at PJ Media. It's from June 22 of this year, but it's still relevant. 

China is a ruthless meritocracy. Ten million high-school students take the gaokao (college entrance exam) each year, with math questions a lot tougher than our Graduate Record Examination. The average Chinese family spends the equivalent of a year’s income on tutoring. A third of Chinese undergraduates major in engineering, and China graduates six times as many STEM BAs as the U.S. each year–more than the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Europe combined. A lot of their teachers hold doctorates from top U.S. universities, where we trained up a world-class faculty for Chinese universities (which now rank among the world’s best in STEM according to all the Western ratings).

Meanwhile, the University of California is “phasing out” standardized exam (SAT and ACT) scores as a criterion for admission, in order to build a Potemkin village of equality. China is building up its universities and we are destroying ours. Who do you think will run the world a couple of decades from now?

China is the most racist country in the world. It put between one and two million members of the Turkic Muslim Uyghur minority through “re-education camps” in its Western Xinjiang province to crush resistance to cultural absorption. Every Chinese I have spoken with about this, from government officials to office workers, says matter-of-factly, “We’re going to kill them all.” That is how China has been handling “unruly barbarians” for thousands of years. 

Somehow personal achievement has become something that is frowned upon in this country. Our children are the ones who will suffer because of that mindset.

The soft bigotry of anti-racist expectations, by Ian Rowe

 Yes, black kids can achieve and meet expectation in public schools. They can do as well as white kids (not that white kids are doing that great either) and Asian kids. But not if we hold them to lower expectations in the name of "antiracism." 

Despite these facts, school districts across the country are adopting the narrative that racial disparities in academic outcomes pose today’s greatest educational challenge. Such tunnel vision towards problems is usually accompanied by an equally narrow vision towards causality. These educators are reinforcing the flawed belief that every racial disparity must be due to white supremacy and systemic racism, regardless of other factors like declines in stable families or lack of school choice, which may play a far more powerful role in impeding the development of children of all races. The resulting “anti-racist” policies are becoming the unintended, modern day version of the soft bigotry of low expectations.

I taught in a district where requirements were slowly lowered over the years until they were meaningless. When I left, students were allowed to turn in any assignment for full credit up until the last week of the term. Parents repeatedly asked for lists and new copies of those missing assignments, which were usually still not turned in. We were not allowed to give zeros on assignments that weren't turned in. Students had to be given 50%. And of course, nobody was allowed to be retained even at a parent's request, because the research says . . . 

Racism is not the cause of current disparities. For more information on that subject, I strongly recommend Thomas Sowell's book "Discrimination and Disparities."

And as Ben Shapiro once said on a related subject:

San Diego Unified Holds ‘White Privilege’ Training Sessions For Teachers

 Don't expect American public education to improve. Here is another reason why the majority of American public school students will continue to graduate with little or no reading, writing, math, or critical thinking skills.

On Thursday, an exclusive report on leaked documents revealed that the San Diego Unified School District was holding training sessions where teachers were told of their “white privilege,” that they were racist, and they were part of an oppressive white power structure. Not only are the teachers told that they must acknowledge their “privilege” and embrace “antiracist” ideas, they are instructed to “teach others to see their privilege.”

Christopher Rufo of City Journal reported what he had discovered in the leaked documents. “SCOOP: San Diego Unified School District is forcing teachers to attend ‘white privilege’ training, in which teachers are told ‘you are racist’ and ‘you are upholding racist ideas, structures, and policies.’ The leaked documents from the training session will shock you,” Rufo wrote in a series of posts.

Teachers can't teach if they aren't being trained to teach. Unless things change radically, look for the next generation to be even less skilled than current graduates. Next, students will learn how to humiliate their teachers - instead of learning useful skills.

Read the whole article and weep for what will be coming next.