Posted on 07/11/2005 11:32:12 AM PDT by hsmomx3
My son is taking an algebra course this summer at the Catholic preparatory high school that he is entering as a freshman this year. It's also a political indoctrination course.
Neither my son's excellent school nor his excellent math teacher is the source of the indoctrination.
The source is the textbook, which is designed to do more than teach algebra. As I will show momentarily, it is also designed to convey politically-correct group-think.
Because government schools have a near-monopoly over K-12 education, textbook publishers cater to their largest customer, the government. As a result, Catholic schools and other private schools have to buy the same textbooks used in government schools. In economic terms, the government has "crowded out" competition in textbooks.
The algebra textbook conveys the message that white males have made less of a contribution to mathematics than women and selected minorities. It does this through half-page "Biographical Notes" interspersed throughout the book. Each note ostensibly describes a renowned mathematician, along with picture or artist's rendition of the individual.
Only one white male warrants a Biographical Note, and he can't be found until page 578. His name? Albert Einstein.
Preceding Einstein are the following people, who are listed below in the order of their appearance in the book. Curiously, some of them were not mathematicians.
Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), an astronomer
Hypatia (A.D. 370-415), a female Egyptian mathematician
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), an Indian mathematician
Hsien Wu, a citizen of China and a biochemist
Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903), the wife of Washington Roebling, the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge
Daniel Hale William (1856-1931), an African-American heart surgeon
Juan de la Cierva, a Spaniard who designed airplanes in the early 20th century
What was the purpose of this paean to diversity? Well, it was not to teach algebra. The purpose was social engineering.
Because of a widespread belief that women and minorities (other than Asians) aren't good in math due to cultural factors, the publishers get brownie points from their government overseers by sending a message to female and minority students that their own kind can succeed in math.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, almost 70 percent of black 12th-graders and 55 percent of Hispanic 12th-graders score "below basic" on math proficiency tests. This national tragedy will not be fixed by biographical notes in algebra textbooks.
Granted, compared to the virulent forms of group-think and multiculturalism found in social studies textbooks, the algebra textbook variety is mostly benign. But in the larger scheme, it is not benign for the government to have a monopoly on K-12 thought - a monopoly that is manifested not only in textbooks, but also in the classroom through unionized government teachers, whose view of the world is bound to be different from parents who don't work for the government and are not members of unions.
Fortunately, children in private schools can escape the classroom part of government indoctrination. Unfortunately, they can't escape the textbook part of government indoctrination. It would be better for all students, but especially poor minority students, if government indoctrination did not appear in either classrooms or textbooks. But the only way of eliminating the indoctrination is to end the monopoly.
White men may not be good at math, but this one knows that one government monopoly plus one unionized government work force equals two reasons to support vouchers. _________________
Mr. Cantoni is an author and columnist. His critically-acclaimed new book, Breaking from the Herd: Political Essays for Independent Thinkers by a Maverick Columnist, can be purchased for $10 directly from him or for $18.95 at retail. He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com or haalt1@aol.com.
bump for later
Juan doesn't qualify as a white male?
LOL!
Author's bio
http://www.craigcantoni.com/bio.html
Reminds me of a joke.....
A little boy was doing his math homework. He said to himself, "Two plus five, that son of a bitch is seven. Three plus six, that son of a bitch is nine...." His mother heard what he was saying and gasped, "What are you doing?" The little boy answered, "I'm doing my math homework, Mom." "And this is how your teacher taught you to do it?" the mother asked. "Yes," he answered. Infuriated, the mother asked the teacher the next day, "What are you teaching my son in math?" The teacher replied, "Right now, we are learning addition." The mother asked, "And are you teaching them to say two plus two, that son of a bitch is four?" After the teacher stopped laughing, she answered, "What I taught them was, two plus two, THE SUM OF WHICH, is four."
another good post
Of course, during this time, women, gays, and people of color were also doing many exciting and important things..."
LOL, will have to remember that.
Watt, Volta, Tesla... any of those could be in there. Or even the Wright Bros., Burt Rutan? Kelly Johnson(Lockheed)... hmmmm
Was this school ever confronted on this? Private schools can purchase other books.
I understand and agree with your main point, but mentioning Ramanujan is not so bad. He was an amazing genius on a world-class scale. The way in which he accomplished his work is also very inspirational.
Thomas Alva Edison, Franklin?
> A cheaper option might be for the school to find a book from an era where they actually just taught math and have that book re-printed through one of the zillion small publishers out there.
Small problem: copyright infringement.
OK, that's funny. BTT.
Isn't that a porn star?
I don't get this one... Isn't this supposed to be a Math book?
There are plenty of options from other sources other than the textbooks government schools use.
Homeschoolers use Saxon, Jacobs, Chalk-Dust videos, etc.
Not to mention mainstream homeschool texts like A Beka and Bob Jones.
Why use the texts the public schools are using anyway...they don't seem to be having such great success with them, so why would a private school even choose them?
Interesting enough, once the child gets to college and takes Calculus...all that's in the math book is math.
Only one white male warrants a Biographical Note, and he can't be found until page 578. His name? Albert Einstein.
This is especially ironic since Einstein was not a mathematician, and, indeed, disliked mathematics. He was known to quip, "You know, once you start calculating, you sh*t yourself up before you know it."
Also, some schools have OLD books still in storage from way back when. Dig them out, dust them off, ignore the musty odor and actually learn math.
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