From Toni Airaksinen at Campus Reform:
“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White,” Gutierrez argued.
Gutierrez also worries that algebra and geometry perpetuate privilege, fretting that “curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans.”
Math also helps actively perpetuate white privilege too, since the way our economy places a premium on math skills gives math a form of “unearned privilege” for math professors, who are disproportionately white.
…
Further, she also worries that evaluations of math skills can perpetuate discrimination against minorities, especially if they do worse than their white counterparts. More.
What garbage. Gutierrez’ (and many others’) real goal is to protect abysmally failing school systems. Put another way: The kid who is failing math (“if they do worse than their white counterparts?”) often negotiates complex games and social media, using a variety of rules and signal systems.
Which naturally leads one to ask, why can just anyone at all teach the kid better than the publicly funded compulsory school systems that Gutierrez is protecting?
A friend describes this woman as the anti-Escalante., He’s referring to an inspired math teacher, Jaime Escalante, who developed methods for helping disadvantaged minority kids achieve (but all his reforms were later dismantled by the tax-funded bureaucracy, of course).
Disadvantaged minority students lag in achievement mainly because the education system banged out in the 19th century is a millstone today. It benefits unions, bureaucrats, textbook publishers, and lobbyists. Of course, the students with the fewest alternatives to these rent-seekers suffer the most. But don’t expect to hear anything like that from a beneficiary like Gutierrez.
Right now, however, the biggest problem is the silence from the big science bureaucracies over the growing number of attacks on science like this one. The ‘crats seem obsessed with, for example, doubt of Darwinism among students.
Hey folks, those are high-class worries compared to what you face from the social justice warriors. Ask Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying.
Unfortunately, the ‘crats will probably avoid the problem as long as they can until they find an unobtrusive way to just cave. Thus, freedom in education—including academic freedom—is about to become more important than ever for parents and students.
Note: Anyone remember the film Hidden Figures? No, we thought not. Maybe that’ll get slammed as racist too, if it hasn’t already been.
See also: Johnny Bartlett: Why teach algebra?
Algebra is not racist.
Bill Dembski’s new online book on inspired learning (It Takes Ganas: Jaime Escalante’s secret to inspired learning)
Nature: Stuck with a battle it dare not fight, even for the soul of science. Excuse me guys but, as in so many looming strategic disasters, the guns are facing the wrong way.
Parents questioning curricula? Must be “anti-science” at work
Biology prof Bret Weinstein’s persecutors face sanctions from Evergreen State College