Is two plus two five? It could be…unless you’re racist.
This is a popular idea, surrounded by a social justice analysis on mathematics.
This campaign, oddly, is supported only by Bill Gates.
As reported by Campus Reform, the Gates Foundation has contributed $1 million to local governments and major universities in order inject “antiracism” into math.
The effort is called “A Pathway to Equitable Instruction.”
The official site:
Steps to Equitable Math InstructionThis integrated approach to mathematics centers Black, Latinx and Multilingual students in Grades 6-8. It addresses the barriers to equity and aligns teaching to grade-level priorities standards. Pathway gives educators guidance and resources to help them plan their curriculum. However, it also provides opportunities for continuous self-reflection to ensure that they are developing an anti-racist approach to math. The toolkit “strides” serve as multiple on-ramps for educators as they navigate the individual and collective journey from equity to antiracism.
If you’re unaware, per CNN, antiracism razes the following “microaggressions“:
- “Don’t blame me. I never owned slaves.”
- “All lives matter.”
- “We’re all one human race/big happy family.”
- “I’m colorblind; I don’t care if you’re white, black, yellow, green or purple.”
Those used to be un-racist, but they’re the opposite of anti-racist.
UCLA Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw offers more:
“Antiracism is the active dismantling of systems, privileges, and everyday practices that reinforce and normalize the contemporary dimensions of white dominance. This, of course, also involves a critical understanding of the history of whiteness in America.”
You want to make math work?
It thinks that it is able to teach equitable math.
“The framework for deconstructing racism in mathematics offers essential characteristics of antiracist math educators and critical approaches to dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by making visible the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture,” it explains.
The guide insists teachers should “not require every student to follow the exact same path to the right answer.”
Here’s why:
The child of immigrants might have learned a different way to solve a problem because that’s how their parents were taught where they grew up. Telling a student the wrong way can lead to them avoiding math all their lives. The entire class can benefit from the learning opportunity provided that we explore different approaches to the same problem.
Do you think there is a right way to answer this question?
White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when…
There is a greater focus on getting the “right” answer than understanding concepts and reasoning.
Indeed:
Accepting the notion that there will always be right and wrong answers is a way to keep objectivity in check as well as avoid open conflict. Some math problems may have more than one right answer and some may not have a solution at all… [W]When the goal is just to find the answer, it can lead to underdevelopment of mathematical reasoning and complex concepts, which could result in missed opportunities for deep learning.
Even though errors are unacceptable, they should be taken into consideration.
[M]Most math problems can be solved correctly, however, it is possible to see a problem in more ways than one, such as word problems. This leads to multiple right answers.
Of course, that used to be called “the wrong answer.”
At least they’re encouraging creative learning:
Center Ethnomathematics
- Recognize how communities of color use mathematics and problem solving every day.
- Recognize and question the uses of math to support imperialist, capitalist and racist ideas.
Back to Bill Gates, it’s an interesting idea: A man who built his fortune in the mathematically objective world of software development is funding a paradigm which will result, presumably, in fewer people being able to do the same.
Or perhaps I’m wrong.
Then again, “wrong” may no longer be a thing.
-ALEX
Get more information from me
Woke Fail: University Evicts a Slaveholder’s Statue, Still Puts His Name on Every T-Shirt
It Gets Woker: Yale Publishes Blueprints to Inject ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ Into All 25 Departments
Chicago Unmasks its Adults and also Its Senselessness. We leave the children behind
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