Posted on 11/06/2021 6:49:09 AM PDT by devane617
California Tries to Close the Gap in Math, but Sets Off a Backlash Proposed guidelines in the state would de-emphasize calculus, reject the idea that some children are naturally gifted and build a connection to social justice. Critics say math shouldn’t be political.
But ever since a draft was opened for public comment in February, the recommendations have set off a fierce debate over not only how to teach math, but also how to solve a problem more intractable than Fermat’s last theorem: closing the racial and socioeconomic disparities in achievement that persist at every level of math education.
The California guidelines, which are not binding, could overhaul the way many school districts approach math instruction. The draft rejected the idea of naturally gifted children, recommended against shifting certain students into accelerated courses in middle school and tried to promote high-level math courses that could serve as alternatives to calculus, like data science or statistics.
The draft also suggested that math should not be colorblind and that teachers could use lessons to explore social justice — for example, by looking out for gender stereotypes in word problems, or applying math concepts to topics like immigration or inequality.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And of course, it is sublime cruelty to forcibly detain young men and women with IQs of 85 or less in what amount to prison conditions until age 18, define “failure” as inability to master Algebra II, and restrain their natural affinities while claiming that it’s for their own good.
Inevitably, females get pregnant and males get violent. What else would you expect?
And it’s not racial, per se (although accurate ability measurement is very important).
I went to an all white high school with 468 kids on my class, 10% of whom (at least) were in what were called “non-regents” classes and the boys fought and stole and the girls got knocked up just like you would expect.
Now, make a school with a 12-year academic program where not 10% if the “students” are like that, but 95+% are, hire and fire administrators and teachers if they fail to “leave no child behind”, label the vast majority of the inmates (oops I mean students) failures, implicitly if not explicitly, and then you have what we have now.
You want that in brown dollars?
Exactly !!!!!
If a tenth as much effort was made toward learning math as is put toward athletics this problem wouldn’t exist !
And I am not talking about requiring everyone to be at the Hawking level to graduate HS. To get through HS algebra requires as much mental effort as these kids regularly put into learning their cell phones & video games.
Note I would say card games but I don’t think anyone plays cards anymore.
Pretty sure they already are. Unfortunately it is unlikely they will make us smarter. Only the wealthy will be able to have designer smart babies. If you are lucky you can afford an implant to give you a competitive edge amongst your peers. Life now imitates scifi movies lol.
I went to a mix of all-white and bussed-in blacks from across the district. White bread administration with inner city discipline issues. Arguably the worst high school in the nation at the time. A teacher named Luann Johnson wrote about her experiences there, it became the famous movie “Dangerous Minds” with Michelle Pfeiffer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlmont_High_School
I think we should simply have vouchers, and the kids that can study & get ahead can use what’s left of their voucher money on college. We constrain bright kids to be bullied by the @$$#0/e jocks who are never going anywhere after high school, all so the schools can collect their money. Useless.
The top mathematicians tend to do their very best work when they are young. Pandering to this Marxist Agenda ends up depriving the World of advancements in a difficult subject. Who knows what we shall never have because of nonsense like this?
Of course not. There are billions of Asians both Chinese and Dot Indian. The new advancements will come from them.
“...or applying math concepts to topics like immigration or inequality...”
How about some basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?? For advanced courses, maybe balancing a checking account. Better yet, learn to count basic change back without a calculator.
Clinton started it by promising that everyone would be a college graduate. Then he turned every voc program and hairdressing school into a college to qualify for loans.
Clinton started it by promising that everyone would be a college graduate. Then he turned every voc program and hairdressing school into a college to qualify for loans.
Clinton started it by promising that everyone would be a college graduate. Then he turned every voc program and hairdressing school into a college to qualify for loans.
I’m noticing the post button is very slow this morning
resulting in multiple posts.
Yep.
“...To those who don’t think there is a connection to math skill and civilization, just examine the areas of the world and how they compare to construction of bridges, cities, highways. Note that in the advanced areas wherein math is (or was) essential part of education, they have cities made of steel, glass, cement and go upward. Bridges made of steel designed to be strong and some artistically pleasant and highways that endure travel by many thousands of vehicles per hour some baring heavy loads. Meanwhile in the less math infused cultures what does one find: Bridges made of hemp, cities made of
one story concrete blocks or reeds, and highways that are used by animals as game trails....”
^THIS^
Home schooling will allow gifted students to go as far as their talents will take them.
Sending a gifted child to a public school in CA is child abuse.
THIS is CRT.
Libs love to argue that CRT isn't taught in the schools because there's no actual course titled "Critical Race Theory." There doesn't need to be. CRT is baked in to everything else they teach.
THIS is CRT.
Libs love to argue that CRT isn't taught in the schools because there's no actual course titled "Critical Race Theory." There doesn't need to be. CRT is baked in to everything else they teach.
Trick Question
Not much of a payoff for making all those men have happy endings.
When I was in college, I majored in math and worked as a paid math tutor for the college to tutor disadvantaged students. It shocked me that blacks were not only admitted to the college and enrolled in high-level math classes, but that they could barely understand fifth grade level math.
I worked hard to tutor this one black guy in his late-twenties, teaching him basic math because I told him he can't learn calculus without the basics. I felt bad for him because I thought he wouldn't survive economically. Then I asked him why he was there. He started out parking cars, saved his money and managed to buy his own parking lot, then made enough money to hire others. Freed up enough time to go to college to figure out that he needed math. Dumb, but rich!
Multi variable calculus and differential equations are fundamental to higher levels of understanding of many physical phenomena in all branches of Engineering, Physics, etc.
America had better pray that some of its best children reach their full potential, somehow.The worst part of ignoring this reality is that the hyper-focus on "equity" results in the loss of higher-performing minority kids who are ignored in the demand for equal outcomes. Granted there are fewer high-IQ, higher-performing students, in absolute and proportional numbers, among latins and blacks, but to lose the one's who are at the higher-end of the bell curve is tragic.
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