XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism   
   From: kurtnicklas@gmail.com   
      
   Politicizing Math and Science   
      
   Is expecting the “right” answer a characteristic of “white supremacy”?   
      
   In a February 2021 bulletin sent out by the Oregon Department of   
   Education, just below a feature on Black History Month, is a notice   
   announcing a “micro-course” for educators titled “A Pathway to Math   
   Equity.” The course promises to provide educators with “key tools for   
   engagement [and] strategies to improve equitable outcomes for Black,   
   Latinx, and multilingual students” and knowledge on how to “dismantle   
   racism in mathematics instruction.”   
      
   One might well ask, how can math—which more than any other subject   
   deals in the realm of pure logic—possibly be racist? The “toolkit”   
   provided as a resource for the first course session is happy to answer   
   this question.   
      
   “We see white supremacy culture show up in the mathematics classroom   
   even as we carry out our professional responsibilities” explains the   
   guide. Educators must therefore take on the responsibility for   
   “visibilizing the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture   
   with respect to math.”   
      
   These “toxic characteristics” include basic academic principles such   
   as:   
      
   The focus is on getting the “right” answer.   
   Teachers are teachers and students are learners.   
   Independent practice is valued over teamwork or collaboration.   
   Students are required to “show their work.”   
   Grading practices are focused on lack of knowledge.   
   “Real-world math” is valued over math in the real world.   
   Students are tracked (into courses/pathways and within the classroom).   
   Participation structures reinforce dominant ways of being.   
      
   The toolkit goes on to state that “The concept of mathematics being   
   purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much   
   less so. Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong   
   answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict.”   
      
   The course also contains numerous suggestions for educators who want   
   to fight racism in their math classrooms. These include:   
      
   Adapt homework policies to fit the needs of students of color.   
      
   Expose students to examples of people who have used math as   
   resistance. Provide learning opportunities that use math as   
   resistance.   
      
   Identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold   
   capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.   
      
   The course materials repeatedly echo the tropes of critical race   
   theory, insisting that “only white people can be racist in our   
   society, because only white people as a group have that power.”   
   Another section of the workbook asserts that “In some cases, the   
   prejudices of oppressed people (‘you can’t trust the police’) are   
   necessary for survival.”   
      
   If Oregon’s educational bureaucrats truly want to improve the   
   education of African-American students, this racist exercise in   
   lowering expectations and subverting classroom norms is a dismal place   
   to start.   
      
   https://tinyurl.com/4albcavm   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)