Social Math is racist

Has anyone actually read up on what they're directly addressing, what types of changes they're making to the classes and the teaching methodology? The studies upon which the competing viewpoints are based?

I read the reports that California's changes are based on and that NYC's approach to their gifted program is based on.

I think it's an important conversation but I suspect this thread is going to be filled with people who are knee jerk reacting to the thread title and couldn't be bothered to read up on the subject itself. An ironic twist in a thread about education and the value of learning, lol.
I think you have a very good point, but I also think that you have to account for how this kind of thing typically trends, especially given the language that is being used.
Regardless of your intent or methods, "Is math racist" is an obscenely disingenuous thing to say. The question has no place in any real conversation. It's absurd, unhelpful, fails to allocate emphasis on the problems that matter, and serves only to infuriate and/or confuse the discussion.
"Kids should never have to change" is equally harmful, and just as dumb although it might not be quite as apparently so.

This kind of framing deserves no respect
 
This is the kind of thing why other civilisations like China will one day replace the US.
If you allow absurdities like that to become the norm, you cannot sustain yourself for long as a civilisation.
Math & Sciences are the engines of advancement in a civilisation, along with the arts.
If you allow the dumb people (this is what is happening in truth) to dictate policy because THEY are incapable of learning, you are lowering your level to the lowest common denominator.

Meanwhile, all Chinese kids from the youngest age are put through Math bootcamps and outperform the majority of US kids who play fortnite and study social sciences if they study at all.
 
So someone somewhere pointed out the history of non-white contributions of math is often not taught to students.

And some conservatives spin that to mean that math itself is racist. LOL.... nice strawman.
 
go to any retail store and pay in cash, see if any clerks age 30 and younger can give you correct change without looking at the receipt, the screen or using an app. hell no, because they're math stupid.
 
Quotes from your sources:


"values about students, which affect values about teachers — means being intentional about decolonization. A colonized mind-set says, "Sit down, be quiet, and absorb the canon."

" We have already mentioned tracking. Another common structural feature of American schooling that tends to impede students' success is the extensive use of high-stakes testing. These have been shown to privilege white students, but it's not only the tests themselves that need to be interrogated for their impact on students of color (or poor students), but also the culture that has grown up around the tests. "

"Moreover, the stereotype of a mathematician as a white male working in isolation reinforces the idea that "real" math is done by a few, specially gifted men. "


Lol I'm checking out

He said that you should "at least look at the data" and I agree with that sentiment, but there isn't any data in these quoted sources.
The first once is especially offensive. The author continually quotes "Webinar participants," and "Panelists." There are no sources citd though, and no mention of how such groups were assembled or why they should be taken seriously.

In his 'Topic 3' he says that math needs to support black culture, and then proceeds that in order to do so, math should be implemented into topics like homelessness.

That seems a little insulting
 
There's a reason foreign or first Gen students from Asia, South Asia, East Euro, Mid East and even Africa all tend to adapt quicker to mathematics than other subjects. Math is precision based and universal. So the concept of whitewashing really doesn't apply and the methodology doesn't need to be change to support the incapables. If domestic blacks and Latinos can't keep up or fall behind, oh well. Not the problem of everyone else.
 
Complex mathematics popped up independently in Babylon, China, Greece, Egypt and Persian.
Which race do we blame this on?
 
I wonder if math hated me because I'm part Italian and get a dark tan in the summer? Does anyone know if its only black people math hates?
This actually piqued my interest..

Time to find the surface area and volume of your darker traits and compare with the lighter traits of your body to see what yeilds more or less dominance in mathematics from a skin color pov

Also I remembered years ago ppl advocating to change the term "quantum supremacy" as it was white supremacy. Lol
 
There's a reason foreign or first Gen students from Asia, South Asia, East Euro, Mid East and even Africa all tend to adapt quicker to mathematics than other subjects. Math is precision based and universal. So the concept of whitewashing really doesn't apply and the methodology doesn't need to be change to support the incapables. If domestic blacks and Latinos can't keep up or fall behind, oh well. Not the problem of everyone else.

There is an argument to be made that our entire society, if not the entire world, is missing out on the contributions a lot of people if not for adjusting how math (to name just one example) is taught. Not only from a racial point of view but overall. I say this as a white Jewish guy who hated and struggled with math to ultimately drop out of high school altogether (not solely because of math but I have to admit it was a significant factor. "Hate" is a strong word but is very accurate for how I felt about school).

I skimmed some of the research articles cited in this thread and can't really make heads or tails about what exact changes (specifically) some are calling for in the teaching of math. Some line I saw from one of the research papers mentioned how black math teachers should not be thought of "less than" just by virtue of being black, which is pretty obvious.

Is it a conversation worth having? Sure, I see no reason why not. Anyone who is having a knee-jerk reaction to the reactionary headlines should take a deep breath and actually research a bit first before establishing whatever opinion your friends and favorite talking heads tell you to.
 
There's a reason foreign or first Gen students from Asia, South Asia, East Euro, Mid East and even Africa all tend to adapt quicker to mathematics than other subjects. Math is precision based and universal. So the concept of whitewashing really doesn't apply and the methodology doesn't need to be change to support the incapables. If domestic blacks and Latinos can't keep up or fall behind, oh well. Not the problem of everyone else.

What they do is create an ideology where the "White man" is to blame through institutionalised racism that "infiltrated everything including sciences",
To avoid taking responsability for the fact that studying some subjects (mainly STEM subjects) is hard.

Which sounds very fancy as an idea, but in reality it's pure retardation. Caveman level.
 
There is an argument to be made that our entire society, if not the entire world, is missing out on the contributions a lot of people if not for adjusting how math (to name just one example) is taught. Not only from a racial point of view but overall. I say this as a white Jewish guy who hated and struggled with math to ultimately drop out of high school altogether (not solely because of math but I have to admit it was a significant factor. "Hate" is a strong word but is very accurate for how I felt about school).

I skimmed some of the research articles cited in this thread and can't really make heads or tails about what exact changes (specifically) some are calling for in the teaching of math. Some line I saw from one of the research papers mentioned how black math teachers should not be thought of "less than" just by virtue of being black, which is pretty obvious.

Is it a conversation worth having? Sure, I see no reason why not. Anyone who is having a knee-jerk reaction to the reactionary headlines should take a deep breath and actually research a bit first before establishing whatever opinion your friends and favorite talking heads tell you to.
If someone sees black math teachers as "less than" that's an issue of that individual it's not a societal one. I promise you the majority of the planet doesn't care what color their math teacher is, if they can make learning at least somewhat fun and give a little extra help to those who might not be catching on as quickly.
 
There is an argument to be made that our entire society, if not the entire world, is missing out on the contributions a lot of people if not for adjusting how math (to name just one example) is taught. Not only from a racial point of view but overall. I say this as a white Jewish guy who hated and struggled with math to ultimately drop out of high school altogether (not solely because of math but I have to admit it was a significant factor. "Hate" is a strong word but is very accurate for how I felt about school).

I skimmed some of the research articles cited in this thread and can't really make heads or tails about what exact changes (specifically) some are calling for in the teaching of math. Some line I saw from one of the research papers mentioned how black math teachers should not be thought of "less than" just by virtue of being black, which is pretty obvious.

Is it a conversation worth having? Sure, I see no reason why not. Anyone who is having a knee-jerk reaction to the reactionary headlines should take a deep breath and actually research a bit first before establishing whatever opinion your friends and favorite talking heads tell you to.

The top mathematic focused nations are not adopting any western egalitarian approaches of teaching. I'm not even entertaining the concept that math is racist because a minority subsect of the minority populace is lacking while the remaining minority sect (who theoretically should be more of a disadvantage due to actual language barriers) are able to learn and thrive. I'll welcome any studies on the field, but I have enough empirical evidence from post secondary and post graduate work in applied physics / engineering to know that math is North America is no way tilted to favor whites.
 
The top mathematic focused nations are not adopting any western egalitarian approaches of teaching. I'm not even entertaining the concept that math is racist because a minority subsect of the minority populace is lacking while the remaining minority sect (who theoretically should be more of a disadvantage due to actual language barriers) are able to learn and thrive. I'll welcome any studies on the field, but I have enough empirical evidence from post secondary and post graduate work in applied physics / engineering to know that math is North America is no way tilted to favor whites.

That is all assuming these people think in a rational, logical, and scientific way as you do.
They don't. Truth is racist to them. And so it must be fought and abolished.
 
That is all assuming these people think in a rational, logical, and scientific way as you do.
They don't. Truth is racist to them. And so it must be fought and abolished.

The only argument I've found relevant is that inner city schools don't have the resources to attract talented teachers but that is a total scholastic issue, not a math issue. There's a reason why the advanced stem sector is advocating hard for traditional approaches focused on discipline basics and repetition. It also explains why the educators sect is pushing for ways to improve their "results" and funding. The quote from the article nailed when it said (paraphrasing) this could juke the stats to graduate more students with "mathematical knowledge" but they will get eaten alive if the pursue it in university.

I do appreciate the push to include data science but even that fails without pushing scientific computing programs (R, Mathematica, Matlab, Python)
 
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So someone somewhere pointed out the history of non-white contributions of math is often not taught to students.

And some conservatives spin that to mean that math itself is racist. LOL.... nice strawman.

what the fuck does this have to do with the OP???? I mean, you didn't quote anyone so I am assuming you mean the OP.
 
White men have nowhere near the power/influence the SJWs think they do.

They know full well how much power & influence white men have (very little). It's all just one big fantasy to get people on board with their pathetic little revolution.
 
I didn’t read the article but will comment anyway.

I remember reading the success Jaime Escalante and Ben Jimenez had at teaching AP Calculus at a Garfield High School in a poor area in East LA. They got something right. What was their own version magic? It seemed to disappear after they left the school.

it makes me think of the marshmallow test given to young kids. Kids are given a treat and told if they did not eat it over a certain time period they would be given a second treat.

kids who were able to delay their gratification tended to be more successful in many areas later in life.

but kids in more chaotic home environments it made more sense to eat the treat right away. There was no reinforcement that delaying gratification would be rewarded in the home.

So I wonder if Esclante was getting kids in his AP Calculas classes that would have delayed the gratification or was he reprogramming kids who would have eaten the marshmallow by showing them that persistence and hard work is rewarding. Maybe it was rewarding in working with their peers to reach a tough goal as a team.
 
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