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Teacher group: Math is ‘the domain of old, white men’
EAG ^ | 9/12/2014

Posted on 09/16/2014 5:02:58 PM PDT by Altura Ct.

According to a Teach for America website, culturally responsive teaching in math is important because “math has traditionally been seen as the domain of old, White men.”

white privilege and prejudiceAs reported earlier this week, Teach for America groups across the country are committing themselves to “culturally responsive teaching,” a radical pedagogy used by communist Bill Ayers and other blatant anti-American indoctrinators.

The site, Culturally Responsive Teaching, Teach for America, says that because math is seen as a domain for old, white men, many students cannot identify with it. Therefore, educators should find ways to relate math to the lives of their students.

Judging from the math curriculum recommended, this TFA group, like all other social justice educators, wants minorities to believe that what relates most to their lives in America is racism and oppression.

For example, the site recommends “Critically Conscious Mathematics” and “Radical Math.”

Radical Math was created by educator Jonathan Osler several years ago while teaching at El Puenta Academy in New Jersey. Osler taught Radical Math along-side Cathy Wilkerson, a former member of the Weather Underground Organization (with Bill Ayers) who once participated in a plot to detonate a nail bomb at a dance for military personnel at Fort Dix.

Radical Math provides hundreds of social justice math lessons obviously meant to indoctrinate. For example, lesson titles include “Sweatshop Accounting,” “Racism and Stop and Frisk,” “When Equal Isn’t Fair,” “The Square Root of a Fair Share” and “Home Buying While Brown or Black.”

Today, Osler is director of the San Francisco Teacher Residency, a teacher training and job placement program created by the San Francisco Unified School District and Common Core assessment creator and validation committee member, Linda Darling-Hammond.

Astonishingly, in proudly promoting ‘cultural competence’ and ‘critical consciousness’ in education, the TFA website’s home page links to a Wikipedia definition of critical consciousness that describes it as a concept developed by Paulo Freire and grounded in post-Marxist critical theory.

As recently reported, the site also contains letters from 5th grade students asking text publisher Houghton Mifflin why they did not include in their textbook the fact that Christopher Columbus ‘burned, slayed and hanged’ Native Americans who would not find gold for him.

In keeping with their racism-of-evil-white-men theme, the site uses a story, involving racism against African Americans, of course, to suggest that the idea that math is neutral, rational, and logical is a myth and the premise that 2 + 2 = 4 is “naive.”

Here’s the story:

… a European explorer (presumably Francis Galton, the man who invented eugenics) agrees to trade an African shepherd two sticks of tobacco in exchange for one sheep. When he offers four sticks of tobacco in exchange for two sheep, however, the shepherd declines; the explorer later tells this story as evidence of the shepherd’s inability to comprehend simple mathematical reasoning and as “proof” of intellectual inferiority on the African subcontinent. But, if sheep are not standardized units, as there is no reason to believe them to be, then doesn’t it make sense that the second sheep might be worth far more than the first? And then doesn’t our premise of 2 + 2 = 4 look awfully naive?

If Teach for America, as a whole, does not agree with the content of this particular website that bears its name, now would be a good time to say so. Although TFA’s reputation has not been stellar as of late, the ideals and methods expressed in this particular website are beyond fringe, not to mention senseless.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: arth
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1 posted on 09/16/2014 5:02:58 PM PDT by Altura Ct.
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To: Altura Ct.

Right. If the premise is true then why do we hire so many mathemeticians from India and China?


2 posted on 09/16/2014 5:04:51 PM PDT by MeganC (It took Democrats four hours to deport Elian Gonzalez)
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To: Altura Ct.

Yes, folks, one needs old white men scientific notation to express this level of stupidity.


3 posted on 09/16/2014 5:05:13 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Da Coyote

I thought Islam invented it.


4 posted on 09/16/2014 5:05:56 PM PDT by Eddie01 (Liberals lie about everything all the time.)
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To: Altura Ct.

Why would people who don’t want to learn to read, write and speak English want to learn a second language like math?


5 posted on 09/16/2014 5:06:03 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Altura Ct.

US # 25 in world rankings in math . Asian countries 1,2,3,4.5 ...http://www.businessinsider.com/pisa-rankings-2013-12


6 posted on 09/16/2014 5:07:08 PM PDT by sushiman
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To: Altura Ct.

Public Schools are the language of idiots.

Pray America wakes


7 posted on 09/16/2014 5:09:06 PM PDT by bray (Read: Republic of Texas 2022)
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To: Altura Ct.

Old white men. I was a young white boy when I learned math quite well.


8 posted on 09/16/2014 5:09:27 PM PDT by all the best
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To: Altura Ct.

Someone once said that math is the language of the universe.


9 posted on 09/16/2014 5:10:19 PM PDT by oldbrowser (We have a rogue government in Washington)
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To: Altura Ct.
Osler taught Radical Math along-side Cathy Wilkerson, a former member of the Weather Underground Organization (with Bill Ayers) who once participated in a plot to detonate a nail bomb at a dance for military personnel at Fort Dix.

What's with all these Weather Underground characters winding up teaching in the public schools? Time was when there was a character clause in a teacher's contract.

10 posted on 09/16/2014 5:10:27 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: Altura Ct.

11 posted on 09/16/2014 5:10:29 PM PDT by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: Altura Ct.

Really now? Perhaps this why white men get successful engineering jobs. Meanwhile, everyone else gets womyn’s studies degrees and gets nowhere in life. Then they whine about the lack of diversity in engineer/math based jobs. What do they expect when they put out nonsense like this.


12 posted on 09/16/2014 5:10:32 PM PDT by Politicalkiddo (Power always thinks.. that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. -John Adams)
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To: Altura Ct.

thesepeople are out of their effin minds. Keep your children from them and have those so called teachers fired when possible.


13 posted on 09/16/2014 5:11:08 PM PDT by Adder (No, Mr. Franklin, we could NOT keep it.)
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To: Altura Ct.

Old white men cured polio. And wiped out smallpox.

But that doesn’t fit their script, does it?


14 posted on 09/16/2014 5:11:16 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Eddie01

I think islam (small i) invented zero.

That’s about it.


15 posted on 09/16/2014 5:12:10 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA (When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance Becomes Duty.-Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Da Coyote

LOL, perfect!


16 posted on 09/16/2014 5:12:47 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: all the best

Let’s try an example problem...

If Michael Brown stole one package of Swisher Sweets a week,
how much time would pass if Michael Brown was only able to abuse and threaten 12 Korean shop keepers...


17 posted on 09/16/2014 5:12:54 PM PDT by Delta Dawn (Fluent in two languages: English and cursive.)
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To: Altura Ct.

We’re going to have culturally sensitive math? “If a 7/11 gets knocked over, how many bros get rounded up for questioning vs. white folk? That’s right, you can’t divide by zero.” Or “If you take 2 Jews, 3 Christians, and 10 Muslims, how many heads do you chop off?”


18 posted on 09/16/2014 5:13:04 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The only thing the Left has learned from the failures of socialism is not to call it that)
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To: Altura Ct.

Bree-Anda has two babies and no baby daddy. She collects $200 for each baby from welfare. How much will she collect when she has another baby without a baby daddy?

That’s how they should teach it.


19 posted on 09/16/2014 5:13:05 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (Liberals were raised by women or wimps. And they're all stupid.)
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To: Altura Ct.

Math: “keepin’ it real’”

Yeah, real dumb.

CC


20 posted on 09/16/2014 5:13:27 PM PDT by Celtic Conservative (tease not the dragon for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup)
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