Its inclusion has prompted concern with at least one education watchdog group.
“The CA Mathematics Framework is the definitive guide for K-12 math teachers. At a time when our students are consistently scoring lower in math than the national average, it’s crucial that the State Board of Education provide resources with research-based best practices for improving outcomes, and reject resources that demean teachers and single out one race for blame,” stated the group Educators for Quality and Equality in a news release.
The “Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction” section — the lengthiest of the five sections that make up the overall “Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction” — argues that “white supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms” when students are required to “show their work.”
“Math teachers ask students to show work so that teachers know what students are thinking, but that centers the teacher’s need to understand rather than student learning. It becomes a crutch for teachers seeking to understand what students are thinking and less of a tool for students in learning how to process,” the training manual states.
“Thus, requiring students to show their work reinforces worship of the written word as well as paternalism,” it adds.
Instead, teachers are instructed to offer different ways for students to show their math knowledge. Among them?
“Have students create TikTok videos, silent films, or cartoons about mathematical concepts or procedures,” the manual states….
The above comes from an April 5 story in The College Fix.
This is “cuckoo…cuckoo!” “Worship of the written word?” Complete nonsense.
I am a science (and quondam math) teacher and this goes contrary to standard mathematics instruction all the way back to Euclid. Requiring “proof” is not a “crutch” for the teacher. I need to know (1) that you didn’t copy it from someone or somewhere and (2) that you haven’t just memorized a set of useful procedures but actually understand where your terms came from and how the procedures led you to the answer. One can drift into overkill on this point (as I think Common Core does sometimes) by requiring advanced students to laboriously demonstrate elementary math skills, but demanding proof of understanding at the level of instruction is essential if you want a student with genuine knowledge of mathematics and not just a trained human calculator.
hahahahah.
My recollection during my college days that showing work accounted for at least 70% of the grade and by problem as well. I would have gotten a much better grade in P-chem and O-chem without showing my work. Of course, I would not have intimately understood the science fundamentals but hey are those really important? Can’t wait for these reduced education folks to start designing bridges and airplaines. or, even more complicated software!!!
Keith:
The cruel joke is that kids taught this way will be doing grunt work for the kids taught the right way – if they can land jobs at all. .
oh they’ll get jobs alrigth. No fear. Those are called diversity hires.
The cruel joke as you call it will be on those folks and their familu unfortunate to fly on aircraft with incorrectly designed and manufactured engines and the interface software.
Worship of the written word? Hopefully. Too many of us can’t write a declarative sentence, don’t understand the need for a well-formed sentence or even the value of a well-thought-out communication. The study of math requires learning processes. How will a teacher know that the student understands the process if it isn’t visible?
Mathematics is the great equalizer. It is blind to cultural or social privilege, or so I thought. As if Common Core Math weren’t bad enough, social engineers are now scheming to completely disarm our children and render them incapable of advancing in a scientific and technological society. College entrants will be forever enrolled in remedial math programs.
People who criticize this pedagogical approach are manifesting their fear that their white supremacist standards will no longer dominate, with the result that their lives, which depend on and benefit from white privilege, will be upended and those Peoples of Color whom they “otherize” will gain access to positions in society formerly reserved for those who benefitted from entrenched systems of white privilege. By insisting on your “correct” approach to problem solving, you oppress and deny opportunity to people who don’t conform to your white, white-adjacent, and white-influenced ways of thinking, communicating, problem-solving, and working. Telling a Person of Color that his/her/zir way of arriving at a solution is “wrong” and giving him/her/zim a low grade because it doesn’t meet your white “standards” is racism. Racism must be eliminated from education and from society.
Are you even talking about math?
Different children can benefit from different methods of teaching but it has nothing to do with race. Blind students are taught certain ways and deaf students are taught other ways, etc. Some students are interested in one subject and do well in that, while they hate another and do not do well in it. Sometimes a change of teachers will help, but not always. Later they might be more opened to what they once hated.
“You can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.”
Kris, let’s be clear about this issue. Math is not racist. 2+2 =4 in any language, in any culture, in any country, or any religion. Whites don’t have math answers that suppress others. We can agree that there are varied ways to teach math, but in the end, the indicator of success is the correct answer. It has nothing to do with the color of one’s skin, their economic status, or their family’s history. If math excellence was a factor of white privilege, I would have been a rocket science. Thankfully, that was left to those who got the right answers.
Kris, it is you, sad to say, who implicitly assert tangentially, anyway, that people of color can’t do math, and that assertion is purely racist. Math is indeed the great equalizer — it cares not the race of those set on mastery of the subject. It is not learned any other way than by thinking and doing, and rethinking and redoing if necessary….that’s if you want to learn mathematics. There are no shortcuts to understanding. There are different ways of presenting material — some more interesting or effective than others– but 2+2 = 4, or, e^i*pi = -1 for all races, colors creeds etc.. By assenting to this article’s lunacy, you consign the very people you say you wish to help to the mathematical gutter.
The story and Kris response (if not a troll) are civilization killers. Get ready. Read you some St Augustine,,,
Kris, I think it is much better to be real straightforward, with any person, any race or type, who bullies you. Don’t just blame racism on any old vague notion– people are all individuals. Many do not care about race– they just care about the person, any race. I, like many others, was a big fan of Sammy Davis, Jr.– a Black, one-eyed Jewish convert. His mother was of Afro-Cuban descent, and his father was Black. Both were very talented entertainers. Women of all races were attracted to Sammy. In 1960, he famously married a Swedish blonde actress, May Britt.
My post of 4/10 at 9:40pm was cut short, by the Moderator. Anyway, people of all races are individuals. It is a terrible mistake to ignorantly force labels, either positive or negative, on an entire race, religion, or ethnic group. Every individual is unique, with a unique personality and beliefs. I always am careful to associate with good people, with good Christian values, that treat others with love, kindness, and respect. Race doesn’t matter. Christ was a Jew, with a beautiful, holy Jewish Mother,and a loving, holy Jewish father. Love Christ, Our Blessed Mother, and St. Joseph.
Here comes Kris again…So Kris, let’s look at Basketball, using your standards.
Where are the Japanese, Chinese, Indian and other Asian Kids?
By one set of your standards, this must be sheer racist prejudice. What!! No Asian kids in basketball?
“Oh, No !!” Kris says, “It’s because black kids have a very special talent and skill at basketball!”
So that is the other Krissian set of standards – black supremacist standards in basketball are acceptable.
Kris, you have to face it.
Blacks are the most skilled and are superior at basketball. and most sports.
Asians and whites (usually) have better skills in math and sciences.
This is not denying that many black students will someday be very skilled in these areas.
But the way we determine talent in basketball, and in math, is by actual work, tests, and results.
You can’t be a basketballer if you can’t make baskets, and excel in ball handling and rebounding, you can’t make the team.
And if you can’t solve problems, understand math or chemical equations, you can’t make the team also.
Tests do discriminate – against those who don’t know the answers. (Full disclosure: I have been a victim of said bigotry. ☺)
Why should white people get to determine what the “answers” are? Fixing the game against people who don’t think or act or answer white is racist. Forcing them to comply with whiteness because whites say so and because whites control society is racist. Don’t you see that by insisting on a correct answer that whites get to decide is correct is an exercise of racist white privilege? Whiteness must be eradicated so that there may be equity.
Kris, it is not “white” people who get to decide the correct answers for math. The answers are the same in every country. Go to an Arab country and tell them 5 + 5 = 8, and they will call you a lunatic, in Arabic of course.
Kris, you just stepped over the boundary of clear logical thinking. The “right” answer in math is not whiteness, it is the correct answer. 2+5=7 is seven in any culture or language or race. The Arabs taught us that years ago. Euclid taught us how to write formulas and use correct processes to get to the correct answer. Is it possible that you are carrying the “color card” too far? If we were discussing the literature of Western Civilization, you would have a better point. That in fact is where what is taught tends to be “white” because it is western, Europe for a big part of the semester. But, to your question, “Don’t you see that by insisting on a correct answer that whites get to decide is correct is an exercise of racist white privilege?” No and again No! Insisting on the correct answer is math.
Kris is just winding us up, Bob.
Bob One and everyone else…you are being trolled by Kris…ignore his/her pathetic drivel
I hear you, Kris. Ever notice teachers will use colored chalk except for Math. Then it’s chalk white all the way. Very subtle, but it’s there.
#MathSoWhite
Hymie, Kris — right on! And have you ever noticed how white math teachers like their teeth? The implicit message is obvious: white is right.
Seriously, could math teachers be any more racist? Do they think we don’t notice their tacit racism?
Some will do anything to dumb down our educational system to make everyone appear “equal”, which will never happen as ever person has different talents and abilities.
A teacher simply cannot tell where a child made his/her mistake and needs help if one has not seen the process the child used to get the a wrong answer. It is also much easier for the student to copy from someone else without really knowing the subject. Next Bill and Melinda will want to get rid of all testing.
In the seventies “New Math” was brought into California’s schools but was discontinued since it did not work.
Maybe this is related to election “reform.” If government officials don’t “show their work” when counting votes after an election, it proves they’re not racist and makes the results more readily available when 98 percent of the voters “voted” for candidates of the pre-approved Party. It worked “well” in the Soviet Union.
For a while.
Last I checked, Blacks, Browns, Whites, Asians, trans persons, gays, lesbians, poor, rich, middle-class, Republicans and Democrats were all capable of doing math.
(OK, maybe not Democrats, given their latest multi-trillion dollar spending schemes.)
Wow, Even I can’t follow enough of Totally Totalitarian Tatyana’s tweet about this election.
1) Which is the pre-approved party that had 98% election victory? Um not in the United States, dear Tatyana. Guess what, it is still happenning in your beloved Russian motherland.
2) Trump is still to this moment counting votes in Arizona, even after that election has been counted, recounted, and certified. It took a court judge to extract the Qanon hireees of the Repubican Senate in that state to turn over their procedures, which at least at the outset, included “observers” wielding pens the same color as those who were told to mark their ballots with.
And all the while the Chicoms are laughing at our lunacy and educating their children who will take over the world.
I am glad that the editors selected this article as one of their three articles per day. I am interested in education and in race relations and I will study the links. I find the comments very interesting.
I learned a new term. “White-adjacent” seems to be a way of negating south east asian people or their descendants.
Since so many female black mathematicians and engineers were integral to putting a man on the moon, math ability can not be a characteristic of race.
There used to be something cause math phobia which now would be called anxiety. It will be interesting to explore this further.
This is the way I see it. Who are these bad math teachers who are so cruel? I bet they have no teaching talent, and are cruel to many students, regardless of their race. Are they cruel to fat kids, or kids that wear glasses, or disabled children on crutches, or autistic kids, or immigrant kids with limited English fluency, or kids who are light-skinned, albino towheads; or kids with dark skin and dark, curly hair– or what?? Are Arabic Muslim math teachers cruel to Jewish kids?? Why not confront these bad math teachers– and fire them? Waste of time to avoid confronting them, and insist on childish, foolish “anti-racist” political gimmicks to cure the problem! And what is the problem? Poor training in manners and morals, and no teaching talent. These bad math teachers should be fired and eliminated from the field of education.
Math is a universal language. It is pure. It is the language of physics and engineering.
Whether whiteness is to blame for badly taught math or not, the questions for educators are legitimate.
Do you understand the concepts of math yourself?
The United States is 37th in the world in math.
I could only do “plug and crank” math. Word problems and proofs and trig and vectors-huh???
this just don’t add up