Eliminating accelerated math classes in high school is just the first step on the road to an education disaster

Parents are waking up to the scam in education called critical race theory. The dismantling of high school math courses demands the same attention.

It is really a struggle to imagine what the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has in mind by discussing the elimination of accelerated math classes in schools until 11th grade in the name of equity. The story broke in April 2021and shortly thereafter, the VDOE leadership was backpedaling due to parent backlash. “Absolutely, acceleration is NOT going away in mathematics courses in Virginia, if a student needs an accelerated pathway they will absolutely get it,” said Superintendent Dr. James Lane.

So, exactly what is meant by an “accelerated pathway”? It’s obviously not an advanced or accelerated course or classroom. This sounds confusingly similar to the malarkey being proffered by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) recommending students find their ways on common pathways to learn Essential Concepts.

The NCTM and VDOE initiatives lack discussion on structure, sequence, topics, courses, classrooms, and advancement and most important, how the cornerstones of high school math -- algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus – will survive the restructuring.

What is really happening is a rare reveal of liberal orthodoxy exposed in the sausage-making process. I doubt the ideas are going away, they just won’t resurface until better disguised.

“...we assign ‘good intentions’ to the people who hate us, and hate the country.”

I don’t know that the designers of modern math hated us and hated the country. It’s possible, but I doubt it. And most teachers I know, especially the older ones, don’t like how they are now being required to teach to common core standards.

I still sub at the school I used to teach at. When I show the kids how I learned division (this was to 5th-grade kids—long division was expected to be mastered by the end of 4th grade when I was in school) the kids go, “Oh, that’s so easy!” or, “that’s how my dad tried to teach me”.

If you haven’t experienced ‘common core’ math, multiplication involves filling in tiny squares with numbers making a problem that should take 15 seconds to solve into a 10-minute art exercise.

And then there’s the jaggedness of it. New concepts that have nothing to do with one another are introduced each month. Mastering skills doesn’t happen. Believe it or not, first graders are introduced to fractions before they can reliably add.

What I can say is that my teachers in the 50s and 60s gave me a better education than what most kids today receive.

“Most math teachers in K12 don’t have true math degrees. They usually have a Math Ed degree which might mean that set through a ‘Calculus for Poets’ class.”

True, the key is to keep competent people OUT of the schools and make sure those who do get in are flat-out Leftists, coming out of their ‘Education Schools’. And it pretty much explains why math professors think that public schools are psycho in the way they teach math.

You can’t fight an enemy if we don’t even see them as such.

My doubt stems from the fact that ‘modern math’ sprang out of NCTM back in the early 70s before hating our country and undermining it had become fashionable, but I admit I could be wrong.

I do see NCTM’s approach to the teaching of math to be both wrong-headed and unproductive and I will say so to anyone willing to listen.

I don’t think the problem is necessarily with the teachers of math, at least in my limited exposure to them, they all agree that we’re doing things wrong. The big problem lies with the states’ education departments that mandate tests that mirror ‘common core’ approaches to math which then get passed down to the teachers in the local schools. Every year they are judged on how their kids do on state tests.

Even before ‘No Child Left Behind” that monstrosity gifted to us by Ted Kennedy and G.W. Bush, there was a move to judge schools and their teachers by how well students performed on standardized tests. Naturally everyone started teaching to the test—or as we have since found out cheating to the test. What the kid actually learns and knows how to do is nothing. It’s how the class did on the test.

I retired 9 years ago and as I said earlier I still sub at the school I taught at. I was lucky because I taught history, which was and is not considered important enough to be tested. I was actually told that my main mission as a history teacher was to help raise reading and math scores.

Now as to the motive of those ‘leading’ state education departments. Are they willfully dumbing down the next generation to cause the fall of America? Are they just stupidly following an educational philosophy as to how kids should learn in an idealized world, or are they coming up with excuses as to why their newer methods constantly seem to fail.

I frankly don’t know, but I agree with you, they need to be opposed no matter their motivation.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.