Posted on 05/05/2021 8:35:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In the name of equality, the California Department of Education seeks to dumb down the brightest kids.
A friend of mine emailed an article the likes of which always prompts me to say "really?"
Please consider the Reason article In the Name of Equity, California Will Discourage Students Who Are Gifted at Math.
I like to verify things myself and you can do so as well by reading the California Department of Education Mathematics Framework.
In its framework, the Department of Education seeks "Culturally responsive mathematics education."
Active efforts in mathematics teaching are required in order to counter the cultural forces that have led to and continue to perpetuate current inequities. Mathematics pathways must open mathematics to all students, eliminating option-limiting tracking. [i.e. no advance classes].
implementation of this framework and the standards, teachers must be mindful of other considerations that are a high priority for California’s education system including the Environmental Principles and Concepts (EP&Cs) which allow students to examine issues of environmental and social justice.
The evolution of mathematics in educational settings has resulted in dramatic inequities for students of color, girls, and students from low income homes.
Teachers are encouraged to align instruction with the outcomes of the California ELD Standards, which state that linguistically and culturally diverse English learners receive instruction that values their home cultures.
I did not go through all the chapters. Reason uncovered these gems.
The inequity of mathematics tracking in California can be undone through a coordinated approach in grades 6–12.
Middle-school students are best served in heterogeneous classes.
The push to calculus in grade twelve is itself misguided.
To encourage truly equitable and engaging mathematics classrooms we need to broaden perceptions of mathematics beyond methods and answers so that students come to view mathematics as a connected, multi-dimensional subject that is about sense making and reasoning, to which they can contribute and belong.
Reason concludes, and I agree "If California adopts this framework, which is currently under public review, the state will end up sabotaging its brightest students. The government should let kids opt out of math if it's not for them. Don't let the false idea that there's no such thing as a gifted student herald the end of advanced math entirely."
Instead, and in the name of "equity", the proposed framework aims to keep everyone learning at the same dumbed down level for as long as possible.
The intention is clear. The California Board of Education intends to sabotage the best and brightest, hoping to make everyone equal.
The public does not support these polices. Indeed, it is precisely this kind of talk that nearly got Trump reelected.
Biden should speak out against such nonsense, but he won't. He is beholden to Teachers' Unions and Boards of Education.
Care to complain? If so the California Department of Education posted these ways.
Phone: 916-319-0598
Instructional Quality Commission
1430 N Street, Room 3207
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-319-0172
Q: Who is the arbiter of environmental, mathematic, and social justice?
A: The California board of Education. They intend to cram it down your child's throat and dumb down gifted kids no matter what their parents believe or how vigorous the objections.
If you wish to protest these absurd policies, phone or write the board of education as posted above.
Better yet, get the hell out of California.
Kids with indifferent parents or in the foster system will be denied their chance however slim to learn a skill that will give them a chance at a future.
The majority of the kids in the second category are the disadvantaged minorities they claim to care about.
There is something evil about these people.
They are not ignorant but have good intentions. They know exactly what they are doing.
I went to an elite private prep school—had two full years of calculus before I graduated.
You can be sure the children of the elite will learn plenty of calculus before they get to college.
This will just increase the gap between the elites and the deplorables.
Parents are number one responsible for the education of their children
Communists in the public school system bureaucracy cannot stop us parents from educating our children
They can try but there’s nothing they can do
No the major problem with children like my two sons is they just wanna play video games I don’t really want to study
I leave at 5 AM and get home about 8 PM and don’t really want to spend what precious little time I have with them harangue them about studying
My older son is entering high school next year I hope the study level picks up somewhere
The urban school district where I taught (in a rust-belt state) did kind of the same thing. But instead of eliminating the advanced math classes, they made every math class an advanced class. Example:
Old way: We had three levels for Algebra 1: basic, mainstream, and honors. The student chose his level based on his interests and ability.
New way: Every Algebra 1 class is now Honors Algebra 1.
And that presents a difficult dilemma for the teacher. Aim too high and kids will fail. Aim too low and the truly honors kids are cheated. So what to do? You’ve got to aim low. Otherwise kids will fail, and teachers will be fired.
Bottom line: Those classes are honors classes in name only.
But, hey. At least the superintendent can brag about all the honors classes in his district. So it’s all good.
Great. Everyone will be equally stupid.
They’re probably doing this because they can’t find enough teachers smart enough to teach the classes.
If you even remotely love your children, remove them from the government leftist indoctrination centers.
Homeschool or private school is the only real option.
Equality with whom? China? Japan? The Russians?
Do these boobs not see they are being led down the garden path by those people who seek to dominate them in the future?
No Child Gets Ahead.
The message being sent by this is that blacks are too stupid to do math. Talk about racist!
Will it also be illegal for parents to but their children math books?
If they want to stop the smart kids from learning math they will have to ban millions of math web pages.
Watch Wikipedia ban all of the math pages for being racist—talented kids cannot be allowed to learn this stuff!
Examples:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Array_data_structure
If there was no purpose for those math classes to be there to begin with as they are expendable, then why are the taxpayers paying taxes to hire and keep teachers, classroom space, books, utilities, policing, janitorial, library assistance and those employees and books along with all the other things needed to teach a student an un-necessary class for all these years?
wy69
Very salient reference to a SciFi classic:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron
After school math clubs/private tutoring in advanced mathematics (and other STEM subjects) is the obvious countermove by parents. And some punitive response by the California DOE and the fascist Democrats in the state legislature can be expected.
“EQUITY” demands that attempts to again create merit-based distinctions be suppressed and the perpetrators of such inequality be chastised.
In other articles on the subject, the “heterogenous” math classes are reportedly limited to K-10. This implies that advanced classes might again be taught in 11-12. So maybe all is not lost.
The kids can always take a class at a JUCO. But it is definitely unfair to the kids to waste their time during the regular school day.
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Pretty pathetic. I was in AP Math, and was in the California MGM program in grade school - I was bored out of my mind in regular classes. What are smart kids supposed to do now? Stay with the dullards and be bored, possibly into tuning out of the whole mess? How is it fair to penalize the smart kids who want to learn, and wreck their educations?
Teaching to the lowest common denominator.
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