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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
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| 2017-05-19 |
| h/t Instapundit Millions of K-12 students across the country believe that mathematics is a sadistic discipline--(I should know, I was one of them)--but a new "social justice" training module aims to persuade teachers that maybe the kids are on to something. The course was designed by Teach for America and is offered through EdX, according to Campus Reform. It presupposes that math could be made more interesting for students if it was infused with socially relevant themes. That's not a terrible assumption--maybe young people would like math better if it was being taught in a language they understood. (If Olivia eats 10 pieces of avocado toast every day, how long will it be until she can afford to move out of her parent's house? That sort of thing.) But Teach for America thinks that language is "social justice," and has designed a course that makes some startling claims about math. "In western mathematics, our ways of knowing include formalized reasoning or proof, decontextualization, and algorithmic thinking, leaving little room for those having non-western mathematical skills and thinking processes," the training course claims. It continues: "Mathematical ethics recognizes that, for centuries, mathematics has been used as a dehumanizing tool... mathematics formulae also differentiate between the classifications of a war or a genocide and have been used to trick indigenous peoples out of land and property." |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #10 been tried, CF |
| Posted by: Bov Flimbers 2017-05-19 23:28 |
| #9 Here's an idea! Let make the value of Pi exactly 3! and the value if e exactly 2. And the value of c exactly some high number like 50! That'll make it all easier! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2017-05-19 20:40 |
| #8 Didn't you hear? It's now called "STEAM" -- they added "arts" in there, as if an art degree is as rigorous and marketable as an engineering degree! |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2017-05-19 17:32 |
| #7 Like Indian positional notation ("Arabic" numerals)? For some reason the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans were able to build incredible stuff without it. The 'West' didn't use (cultural appropriation!) them till sometime after the Reconquista. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2017-05-19 17:23 |
| #6 The real point of this lies in this quote: "... according to Campus Reform. It presupposes that math could be made more interesting for students if it was infused with socially relevant themes" So brainwashing will make it better. If they can't get more of the ladies interested in STEM degrees they can at least brainwash the the rest. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2017-05-19 16:34 |
| #5 So STEM jobs are hiring, and STEM jobs pay well, and STEM is one of the big reason's America has stayed on top so by all means let's convince the children that the base of the whole STEM success pyramid is evil? |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2017-05-19 16:31 |
| #4 'non-Western' mathematics Like Indian positional notation ("Arabic" numerals)? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-05-19 14:44 |
| #3 Formalized reasoning or proof, decontextualization/abstraction, and algorithmic thinking are pretty much the concepts that make 'Western' mathematics a very powerful tool part of which is the language of the universe. Without these concepts any form of 'non-Western' mathematics is a compilation of intuited truths, half-truths and much superstition. |
| Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660 2017-05-19 14:24 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2017-05-19 11:34 |
| #1 So millions of employers will look for an discard any CV/Resume with credentials from Edx |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2017-05-19 10:13 |