Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hundreds of college professors blast ‘woke’ math movement
NY Post ^ | 12/7/21 | Selim Algar

Posted on 12/09/2021 10:32:30 AM PST by workerbee

Hundreds of prominent professors — including top names from CUNY, NYU, and Columbia — have signed a letter blasting the erosion of math rigor in grades K to 12.

Arguing that curtailing advanced math programs puts American kids at a global disadvantage, the coalition called the movement “the height of irresponsibility.”

A total of 746 math teachers and professors across the country signed the new missive, warning that enfeebled math curriculums would have dire consequences down the line.

The teachers — including two CUNY professors, nine from Columbia University, and 13 from NYU — argued that kids need exposure to advanced math prior to college in order to truly excel.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bidenvoters; k12; math; wokemath
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last
To: Steely Tom

US sailors who were good at math brought down the Soviet Union. Communists fear anyone who knows their way around a slide rule.


21 posted on 12/09/2021 10:53:57 AM PST by Thrownatbirth (.....Iraq Invasion fan since '91. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

‘puts American kids at a global disadvantage’

For the left, that’s a feature, not a bug.


22 posted on 12/09/2021 10:54:24 AM PST by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pepsionice

True. But even the septic tank guy has to calculate chemical mixes. And the Minister has to add up the donos.

It’s politicians who cause the most harm because of math deprivation.


23 posted on 12/09/2021 10:59:14 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

How can math be racist? “Arabic numerals” were invented by People of Color (in India, not in the Arabic-speaking Middle East).


24 posted on 12/09/2021 11:03:02 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Telepathic Intruder

If you can be any gender you feel like and there are about 70 genders, I suppose there are no absolutes anymore.


25 posted on 12/09/2021 11:16:47 AM PST by Old Yeller (1776 em all. Let God sort it out.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: ConservativeInPA

“I personally watched “slower” people drop out of rigorous mathematics courses and majors when I was in college 40 years ago. The progression goes: start as a math major, if you can’t hack it, then become a Math Ed major. If you can’t hack that, then become an El Ed major with a concentration in bulletin boards. “

Nailed it. As a math/physics undergrad and a PhD in EE who chaired a EE dept not that long ago, those frosh math courses are grand predictors in separating future scientists from future politicians/eddikators/media types.


26 posted on 12/09/2021 11:29:56 AM PST by Da Coyote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Lee25

Actually, a lot of people are confounded with percent problems that they don’t understand.

One of the issues I’ve seen is the question of whether the base for the percent calculation is the old number (usually) or the new number (when you want to confuse someone).

In your problem, 75 is offered for something which costs 56. So the % should be based on the 56. 19 is what % of 56. But that is not what is in question, the question is what % of the 75 is to be returned? 19 is what % of 75. When the cost is 56. To me the issue really is why is the % change important?


27 posted on 12/09/2021 11:42:16 AM PST by KC_for_Freedom (retired aerospace engineer and CSP who also taught)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Da Coyote

I graduated in Civil Engineering many years ago. In one of my Freshman courses the professor said that two-thirds of those in attendance will not get to the advanced engineering courses. He was right, maybe even understated. Many wanna-be engineers soon become Business majors.


28 posted on 12/09/2021 11:43:24 AM PST by Stevenfo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

Only 796. Out of how many? We’ve already lost.


29 posted on 12/09/2021 12:00:37 PM PST by DouglasKC
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ConservativeInPA

Sometimes, even that level is not the minimal level:

They have been indoctrinated into thinking they are some kind of expert in mathematics when all they have is an education degree.


We have a recently retired teacher friend, who was a reading instructor. We told her about a teacher in supposedly a good public school system, who waited in tears for our grand daughter to help her present new 7/8 grade math problems.

Our teacher friend told us how that seems to work in California. The newest teacher on the staff gets to teach math. Her daughter was a rookie teacher and was terrible in math. Yet she was the math teacher at supposedly a good public school. So her daughter called her father, a retired pilot both AF and private to help explain her weekly lessons.

She did that for 3 years until another rookie came to work and became the “new math” teacher.


30 posted on 12/09/2021 12:03:51 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Want to make America great again. Stop talking about government reform. Thanks: precisionshootistst)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Da Coyote
Frosh math courses are grand predictors

Calc II was the weed out course when I was in school. That and Physics I & II (calc-based & taken concurrently with Calc I & II). No one held your hand back in those days. No idea what it is like today, but the material "should" be identical. It seemed that once I made it through those courses everything became easy. It is probably more like I straightened out of a lot bad habits from high school then things became easier; plus I learned how to really study.

31 posted on 12/09/2021 12:08:01 PM PST by ConservativeInPA ("Goats are like mushrooms. Because if you shoot a duck, I'm afraid of toasters." - Joe Biden)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

Futile effort on the part of these college professors. If the fools pushing the woke math movement were amenable to reason and common sense, they would not be pushing woke math. These people have an agenda, and it involves total destruction of everything.


32 posted on 12/09/2021 12:08:33 PM PST by odawg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KC_for_Freedom

During World War Two, I heard that school boards cut teachers’ salaries by 10%. After the war, they increased the teachers’ salaries by 10%. Then the school boards wondered by the teachers were fussing.


33 posted on 12/09/2021 12:12:36 PM PST by NorthStarOkie (When I was young, I was poor. After years of hard work, I am no longer young.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Thrownatbirth

Think of the structures and other items designed by engineers using slide rules to three significant figures. When I went to college we labored through five place logarithms.

Sweet Nostalgia!


34 posted on 12/09/2021 12:17:58 PM PST by NorthStarOkie (When I was young, I was poor. After years of hard work, I am no longer young.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

Without Arabs postulating zero there would be no math….how racist is that?

Stupid people doing stupid stuff


35 posted on 12/09/2021 12:28:57 PM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NorthStarOkie

Tha illustrates my point exactly


36 posted on 12/09/2021 1:16:36 PM PST by KC_for_Freedom (retired aerospace engineer and CSP who also taught)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

woke math = return to middle ages


37 posted on 12/09/2021 1:18:22 PM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Seruzawa

People should be able to validate the change they get when paying cash.


38 posted on 12/09/2021 2:00:46 PM PST by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: workerbee

A friend has dubbed American public schools as failure factories


39 posted on 12/09/2021 7:04:48 PM PST by The Great RJ ("Socialists are happy until they run out of people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: odawg

There was a singer named Aaliyah who wanted to take a plane one night. The pilot said your entourage is too big for my plane. She insisted they all fly. The plane got off the ground, then it crashed, killing her.

Math and gravity are hard.


40 posted on 12/10/2021 12:37:45 PM PST by Tymesup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson