Rantz: Seattle Schools document say math is oppressive, US government racist

Rantz: Seattle Schools document say math is oppressive, US government racist


Two plus two may equal four, but if the student says five, you better not correct them, oppressor! Math, in Seattle schools, will become a social justice course. But that’s not all. The U.S. government will be posited as a racist institution that must be destroyed. If this is taught to students, it’s indoctrination at its most destructive.

‘Math Ethnic Studies Framework’ promotes the wrong kind of division

An Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee (ESAC), under the Seattle Public Schools Superintendent, published a preliminary Math Ethnic Studies framework document populated by district representatives that explains math as a racist study used to oppress students — and if you correct a student’s faulty math logic, you’re guilty.

Math is racist
The framework, created by various statewide districts, tackles four themes, including Power and Oppression and History of Resistance and Liberation.

At its core, the belief seems to be that “western” math is viewed as the only “legitimate expression” of math identity and that it’s used to “disenfranchise people and communities of color” and, consequently, it “erases the historical contributions of people and communities of color.”

None of this has anything to do with the math you should learn in K-12; these are topics left for a progressive college course you’d likely see at Evergreen State College.


The framework asks, “Where does Power and Oppression show up in our math experiences?” It wonders, “Who gets to say if an answer is right?”

Apparently, math is now subjective. Who are you to insist two plus two equals four? It goes on to ask “Who is Smart? Who is not Smart?” Answer: the person who says two plus two equals five is not yet smart and should be corrected, even if you think it oppresses them.


The framework believes math is manipulated to allow inequality and oppression to persist. They ask, “Who is doing the oppressing?” I think the answer is supposed to be the white, cis-gendered, heterosexual Christian man.

They ask, “How has math been used to resist and liberate people and communities of color from oppression?”

 

Ironically, if you subscribe to this social justice world view of math, and teach anyone that there’s no such thing as correct answers, you will be doing immeasurable and, yes, oppressive, harm to students.

History revised
These radical educators aren’t just looking to redefine the study of math. They seem ready to use history courses to present an aggressively progressive worldview, using socialist activist Howard Zinn teachings to indoctrinate kids.

The U.S. History Ethnic Studies Framework insists “the United States government was founded on racist intellectual premises and economic practices that institutionalized oppression of
people of color that continues to the present day.”

The document does not hide their goal of demonizing capitalism as exploitative and oppressive. They present mass incarceration as “the New Jim Crow” and want students to understand that “Europeans brought the dominant worldview values of “guns, the bible, private property and social hierarchy, and racial supremacy.”

Reasonable people can certainly argue that history has been whitewashed and we’d all benefit from a more holistic approach to how contemporary society has been shaped. But this document of possible recommendations goes way beyond that. This would be teaching an ideological perspective; this isn’t teaching history.

Seattle Public Schools responds
The ESAC is made up of a number of educators and was created due to a legislature mandate to “advise, assist, and make recommendations to the office of the superintendent of public instruction regarding the identification of ethnic studies materials.”


The committee will meet throughout the next year in order to meet a September 1, 2020 deadline to offer up their final recommendations. The Superintendent’s office notes that the document is a review of the work done by districts so far, but not necessarily a finalized recommendation list, which isn’t yet due.

 

Hurry! leave America before you end up stupid by racist math.

 

We have in Australia this "Aboriginal science" now.
I wasn't aware Aborigines had any science, above what one might call the
"natural sciences" which are taught anyhow.
All this hearkens back to the Frankfurt School of cultural Marxism.

It's no wonder so many of our scientists are now Asian.

 

Aboriginal science may include theories, and assumptions. Math is an exact science. There is no guessing. Close enough is never the answer. From the early Greeks till now the Pythagorean Theorem stills states, "In any right triangle the sum of the square of the two sides is equivalent to the hypothenus squared."

 

Mathematics is just a model for the world around us. Much like logic. It isn't oppressing anyone but the deliberately ignorant.

 

No they don’t. The article lied to you and you fell for it. Pleased don’t get defensive about it but stand up and help challenge this fraudulent and corrupt tabloid industry.

A couple of basic facts;

This isn’t math curriculum, it’s social science curriculum. Nothing in this suggests the slightest change in how actual math would be taught in the area. Far too much is being read in to the social, historic and abstract references and is being spun up as if it means any kind of conclusion is being applied to teaching in schools.

This isn’t an especially well written document, which isn’t a crime and suggests incompetence rather than conspiracy. That said, there is presumably further material related to it but by linking directly to the document rather than the hosting pages, it is conveniently difficult to track down. Almost as if the hacks just want you to blindly take their word for everything rather than look in to it yourselves.

These aren’t unique or unusual topics for social science study and perfectly relevant questions for historical and social consideration. I’d question a singular focus on one abstract like math but the wider topic of how oppression and social division interact with arts and sciences is a perfectly valid and very relevant subject. Indeed, this very article and the allegations it is making is part of that subject.

(it was so hard writing "math" instead of "maths" through that and I hope my American friends appreciate it )

 

I don't care what the article did. I just saw it on the news earlier and found it on the internet so I posted it. It's basically saying the teaching of math is racist.
At its core, the belief seems to be that “western” math is viewed as the only “legitimate expression” of math identity and that it’s used to “disenfranchise people and communities of color” and, consequently, it “erases the historical contributions of people and communities of color.”

 

Humanity is doomed for another cycle of dark ages.

 

The progressive folk are always willing to incite a little unrest and chaos to reshuffle the deck to install their autocracy....

 

That right there tells you everything you need to know about our school system and how identity politics ( liberal politics)
Has infiltrated abd corrupted it.

 

Nothing destroys the appreciation of literature more than bringing Marxist
analysis to it. Let literature be literature.

 

The school system was better when you either fit the mold or you failed..
The whole coddeling of each individual personality is a failed concept.

 

In 2015 the U.S. was barely above the average for developed countries in reading and science, but well below the average in mathematics. When I was in high school in the 70s the U.S. was ranked #1 in the world for math we are now #38.

 

I liked your post not because i like the information but because the info is true.

 

You should care about the links you choose to post and quote. The fact remains that you posted false and misleading information so you were either tricked or you are wilfully lying. I’m currently giving you the benefit of the doubt.

The curriculum isn’t basically saying anything. It’s presenting a wide range of ideas, some perfectly valid and some very questionable (in presentation if nothing else) but again, a lot would depend on the supporting material behind it.

This is a different spin to the one stated in your OP and the article you chose to quote anyway. It’s almost as if between your OP and replying to me, you actually read what you linked.

 

Duplicate

 

If you saw it on the “news”. Please provide a source
The Seattle school district and their paper of record... the Seattle post intelligencer know nothing about this... which they would if this was a happening thing

 

I watched a Terry Jones (Monty Python member) show on the history of the number one.
In it he stated that the Australian aborigines math only had the number 1. Anything greater than that was simply 'many'.
"How many children do you have?" would give the reply "one", or "many". No third option.

Skip to minute 5:30, but the whole documentary is great

 

Two of the winners of the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel Prize (Fields Award) are Iranian, including the late Professor Mirzakhani who became the first ever woman to win the award. Professor Mirzakhani was herself among a long list of Iranian students had won gold and other medals in various mathematics Olympiads, with Iran excelling in such academic competitions quite regularly. Going back in time, one of the most influential thinkers whose contributions to mathematics helped the field advance far beyond what the ancient Greeks had contributed to it, was the Persian mathematician Khwarizmi, whose work (written in Arabic, which was the lingua franca of his time) gave the subject such terms as Algebra and Algorithm. And try to solving any serious mathematical problem using the "Roman numerals" and you will begin to understand that Iranian contributions (both direct and indirect) to mathematical study has been rather significant. Yet, how many people -- even mathematics instructors -- know about this? Very few.

My point is that there is a clear western bias in what is passed as 'education' in the West generally, with the contributions of other civilizations often ignored or buried in scholarly works which few people read. This is true not just in mathematics but in many other fields. While the OP here is clearly meant to excite ridicule and the article itself is poorly framed and drafted, and even though I am personally not comfortable associating non-Western scholarship with the term "POC" (some Iranian may view themselves as such and many won't), the basic premise that education in the West needs to be less ethno-centric is correct. In certain subjects, where such ethno-centrism has the most room to flourish, such as history, the ultimate ignorance that arises isn't really just a problem for people of other cultures. It is also a problem for all those (regardless of background) being trained in these subjects by western education.

 

"I don't care what the article did ..."

The basis for every troll thread in the forum. Disregard the actual facts and start a rant on pathetic hyperbole. Whatever. Carry on.

 

Over all, I am amused that there is all this conservative controversy about truth, science, immutable principles, etc.

I mean, I agree this is crazy talk (although it was falsely presented with the implication that it is the accepted position and policy of Seattle public schools.... which it IS NOT)

but.... yo.... conservatives.... do you ever endorse teaching anti science wingnut perspectives to kids? yeah sure you do....

of course, rather than hated ethnic sources it comes from your beloved religious sources.... AND IS ACTUALLY TAUGHT IN SOME SCOOLS. biology is suspect, cosmology is suspect ....basically any science that does not agree with the laughable young earth creationism..... and let’s be clear, these sciences contested by creationists are comparable to mathematics in terms of scientific consensus