How could math be made better? A school system in Missouri has an idea, and it concerns sex.
The Webster Groves School District has released its official K-12 Math Program Evaluation guide. It was informed by a survey of 2,132 students, 28 parents/caregivers, and 75 staff members. Ten “student empathy interviews” were also held.
As part of the new plan, WGSD lays out “Equity Considerations”…
A persistent myth within math education is that, since “numbers are universal,” math classrooms are objective and free of bias.
Amid classroom calculation, oppression runs amuck:
Research shows clearly that any space where learning occurs is neither free of bias nor resistant to oppressive systems such as racism, sexism, classism or xenophobia…
According to Math Curriculum Coordinator Susan Bergman, a solution’s been found. In order to fight evil while adding and subtracting, the district must teach that there are people other than guys and gals:
Based on surveys of our learners, we need to:
- Include they/them pronouns in our word & contextual problems (not just he/she)
Webster Groves is keeping up with the times. As I recently wrote, “These days, every science seems to be a fusion of itself and the science of wokeness.”
Pronouns and a rejection of the sexual binary has penetrated a panoply of places:
Cartoon Network Schools Kids on Pronouns: They Define You and Make You Feel Safe
Wokedom’s Newest Confection Takes the Cake: Introducing ‘Cake Gender’
University-Level ‘Gender Unicorn’ Teaches That Chromosomes Don’t Determine Sex
‘New Scientific Evidence’: World Health Organization Discovers There Are More Than Two Sexes
Scientific American: The Racist Myth of Binary Sex Wasn’t Invented ‘Til Nearly 1800
‘Nonbinary Gender Affirming’ Doctors Offer Sexual ‘Nullification’ Surgery
Christian Church Leads Prayer to the ‘God of Pronouns,’ the ‘Great They/Them’ Who Breastfeeds
There once were only males and females, and everyone was clear on the difference. But we’ve moved on from such simplistic division. In our unprecedentedly sophisticated era, identity is all the rage. And Webster Groves wants kids to find theirs while crunching numbers.
Back to the guide:
[W]e need to:
- Strengthen relationships between students and teachers, helping to develop learners’ mathematical identities
The district also wants “students to see the beauty, joy, and connectedness of mathematics as a way to see, make sense of and change our world.”
And for some reason, they/them pronouns are exceptionally critical for those with darker skin:
Scholars have demonstrated the ways that mathematics socialization and mathematics identity development are critical aspects to the learning and participation of students, particularly Black students…
Is math really racist? A host of headlines add up to something less than “no”:
Major News Outlet Asks if Math Is Racist
Major University Professor Fights Math’s ‘Harbor for Whiteness’
Department of Education Fights the White Supremacy of Math
Math Professor Says Math Education Is Racist — and Sexist and Homophobic
We appear to be mired in oppression. But in an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, they’re fighting the power — as they teach math to boys, girls, and other students, too.
-ALEX
See more content from me:
Gross Error: Virginia Elections Department Discovers Nearly 20,000 Deceased Registered Voters
Elite University Rejects Transgender Sports Research Proposal Because It Uses the Word ‘Male’
University Has Students Confess They’re a ‘Product of a Heterosexist and Transphobic Culture’
Find all my RedState work here.
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