College Eyes Teaching Math and Science Through the Prism of Colonialism and White Supremacy

Not long ago, English concerned words, biology was set in science, and math dealt with digits.

Who could have predicted such subjects would soon be tinted with talk of race?

For whoever brought such a thing to pass, it was an odd choice.

Relatively few years ago, the radio offered, “Free your mind; the rest will follow. Be colorblind; don’t be so shallow.”

But these days, deep and shallow have switched sides.

We’re currently swimming in “antiracism,” which declares colorblindness as a “microaggression.”

And in an effort to make the world right, secondary education is upending itself:

University President Sends a Letter Announcing the School's Top Priority: Racial Justice and Equity https://t.co/ZmmTyT7BvU

— RedState (@RedState) January 6, 2021

Aiding the revolution: Maine private liberal arts institution Bates College.

The school — which recently announced a $100 million initiative for expansion — is eyeing a change where academic subjects are concerned.

As relayed by The College Fix, a team of five professors and five students have recommended the reboot, which will see all majors required to offer two courses to woke students up.

The topic in need of tending: “Race, colonialism, white supremacy, power, and privilege.”

TCF reports it’s obtained a copy of the proposal.

One recommend path toward the college’s new goal: incorporate existing classes.

As an example, the advisory group uses Calculus I.

That mathematical maze could, the plan posits, “situate race, white supremacy, colonialism, power, and privilege centrally and attend to them throughout the course.”

Furthermore, the Fix reports, “STEM majors could satisfy the advanced requirement by taking “Math 233: Mathematics for Social Justice.”

To be clear, a math class must include the following:

Understanding how mathematical methods can expose racial and other injustices, and the role of mathematics as a gatekeeper and driver of injustice.

As for English, the plan proffers transforming English 113 (Theory of Narrative) or English 241 (U.S. Fiction).

Currently, those cover “Hawthorne, Howells, James, Wharton, Jewett, and Chesnutt, to more recent writing from James Baldwin, Don DeLillo, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Sherman Alexie, and David Foster Wallace.”

To meet the requisite racial review, the classes could implement “methodologies of close reading that decenter white western European models.”

As for science, a biology course must offer “the context of a genetics course to understand the social construction of race, and the fact that there is nothing biological supporting these hierarchies and historical injustices.”

Is race really a social construct?

That would seem to indicate it isn’t real.

And if it’s free from the burden of existing, why is so much of education being altered?

Cases in point:

‘All-Inclusive’ University Cultural Center Hosts a BBQ ‘Intended’ for Everyone but White People

Atlanta Mother Shocked to Discover Child’s Elementary School Segregating Classes by Race

Tennessee University Segregates Students for ‘Antiracism’ Training, Hails the Absence of White People as ‘Magical’

University Announces Mentorship Program, Only for ‘Black, Latino, Native American’ Students

As for “antiracist” math, Bates is late to the charge:

Major University Professor Fights Math’s ‘Harbor for Whiteness’

School District Hosts Year-Long Anti-Whiteness Training to Fight ‘Curricular Violence’ in Math

Department of Education Fights the White Supremacy of Math

But the Bates bunch is trying to right history’s wrongs.

Per the plan:

Bates College recognizes that in a diverse and globalized world, learning to critically discern, examine, and discuss the production and operation of difference, power, and equity is an essential part of a liberal arts education.

Hence:

A requirement engaging students in the study of race, colonialism, white supremacy, power, and privilege will be fulfilled by courses offered by all interdisciplines and disciplines on campus, using a variety of pedagogical approaches and theoretical perspectives and will encourage students to confront and reflect on these themes and the dynamics which reproduce and dismantle them.

If you’re presently a professor and this appears the place for you, join now and vie for the prestigious Kroepsch Award.

Such a prize will be given to one worthy teacher.

But the pupil/professor group believes Kroepsch’s current criteria is “nebulous.”

It’s a profound problem:

Many faculty members do not know how KroepschAward winners are selected, except
that this is done by the students. As a result, this award has tended to solidify white supremacist
hierarchy of social identities.

Thankfully, they have a solution:

We should not only make the Kroepsch Award process transparent, but also look to invest in a new award that validates and rewards good pedagogy in the areas of race, white supremacy, colonialism, power, and privilege.

If everything goes right, the new courses will enable students to do all the following:

Develop an understanding of fundamental concepts in their discipline in ways that center
race, white supremacy, colonialism, power, and privilege.

Be adept at analyzing common issues of race, white supremacy, colonialism, power, and
privilege using appropriate tools in their discipline

Be able to analyze and identify how their discipline interacts with and impacts relevant
communities

Generate useful questions in discipline about race, white supremacy, colonialism, power,
and privilege

Set a future learning agenda for themselves regarding race, white supremacy,
colonialism, power, and privilege

Make their own discoveries and connections regarding race, white supremacy,
colonialism, power, and privilege

Grapple with challenging real-world questions and address complex problems regarding
race, white supremacy, colonialism, power, and privilege