Activist Math

Campus Report ^ | December 21, 2007 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

According to M. J. Mcdermott, a meteorologist and Q13 Fox News (Seattle) weather reporter, the ongoing American mathematic illiteracy may be the result of misguided “reformed math” curriculum which fails to teach students the internationally recognized, efficient multiplication and division algorithms that older generations of Americans learned. Instead, children are encouraged to problem-solve without first developing efficient problem-solving techniques in multiplication and division.

Math by Calculator

As McDermott notes in her video, textbooks such as the 4th and 5th grade versions of Everyday Mathematics devote copious pages to non-germane topics such as a full-color 48-page world atlas to assist students in planning a world tour (4th grade) and full-color 60-page American atlas for planning an American tour (5th grade)....

Math for Social Justice

The radicalization and politicization of math curricula in an ostensible attempt to increase math's “relevance” to students may also be fostering watered-down curricula that spend little time on core concepts such as division, addition, algebra, and other essential skills. The “Revealing Racist Roots” curriculum (3Rs), designed by the Teacher Activist Groups (TAG), a coalition of the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), the Chicago Teachers for Social Justice (TSJ) and San Francisco Teachers 4 Social Justice (T4SJ) contains a mathematics unit designed to demonstrate that the all-white jury chosen for Mychal Bell’s trial was statistically improbable, and therefore inherently racist.

The “detailed mathematics unit” creators, Joyce Sia and Rico Gutstein are based in Chicago and have been given free rein by the Little Village Lawndale School for Social Justice to insert inflammatory messages about racial inequality into the classroom. For example, their section within the (3R’s) manual (pg. 21-26) instructs students to determine the statistical probability of picking a random all-white jury .....

[bboop]

‘trajectories of birds over Everest’ — I am of course being facetious. These are 7th and 8th graders. But I hate the textbooks they are using; they go way off the realm of common sense in their ‘real world’ applications. I suspect they are either trying to confuse the kids, on purpose, or to make sure the parents cannot help their kids, thereby separating the families and making the schools indispensible and more important.

[bboop]

Nevadan, I think you are on to something. God forbid anyone should have to do a boring math problem!!! I was considering taking a pt job teaching Algebra. I asked the Principal if I could choose the book, thinking I would use Saxon, as I am currently most immersed in that one. He said, “Well, we used Saxon last year, but the kids complained that there were not enough graphics and illustrations.” I said, “I have never thought of a math class as entertainment!”

The other thing they are forgetting is that third graders (and up to age 12 or so) do NOT think conceptually. They are concrete. Rote memorization is perfect, and it is a great foundation for more advanced concepts.

Oh, the teachers’ classes!! Do not get me started.

[RightField]

In other words, they use “rote learning”.

Absolutely! I have made the same point to others countless times. We teach our children their "ABCs" way before they even know what letters are! Why????? So they will have the foundational knowledge of the alphabet when they learn the shapes and sounds of the letters.

When it comes to basic arithmetic, however, hardly anyone today wants to make the child MEMORIZE 2x2=4, 3x5=15, etc. I homeschooled both children in elementary and middle school. One of the things I did was put up big posters of basic math facts in their rooms. I never told them to study the posters. But, curiously, after years of looking at them, both children had memorized the facts and, in fact, had begun to recognize arithmetic patterns. When it was time to teach basic arithmetic, both children learned quickly and were able to "think" and "solve problems" because they had the basic tools welded on their brains.

Sheesh .... this is NOT rocket science.

[bboop]

re ‘develop their own strategies’ — I took a Math for Teachers class a while ago. The teacher, a Drama major!!! insisted that there were MANY ways to get the answers. It was terribly confusing. The PhD in Math guy was REALLY confused, and livid. I would come home and tell my scientist husband. He could not BELIEVE what they were teaching us. I had to drop for sanity’s sake.

[RainMan]

I would be curious as to when she said this. I watch 13 every AM and when she does talk political she is almost always on the left. Maybe the middle once or twice. Never the right.