As many other immigrants I was dismayed when I realized how math was being taught in my kids’ public elementary school (ranked 10 on Great Schools). But now there is a push to achieve a new low.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/10/11/seattle-schools-lead-controversial-push-to-rehumanize.html
And many of the modern foundations of mathematics (algebra, the zero, and numbers themselves) are from the Arabs and Indians. PC run amok…
Unlike a lot of the things that are considered necessary knowledge these days, learning math skills will truly set you free. A brush with statistics is especially helpful and it doesn’t even require a couple years of calculus.
Make you realize 95% of the population didn’t bother, and also aren’t bothered by the fact they’re ignorant.
I am an immigrant and a former math major, and I find this appalling. However, I don’t think that my being an immigrant has anything to do with my being appalled.
To me math is math. If there is another planet in another solar system with seven toed intelligent creatures who have built a complex high tech society, then I would expect that a lot of what they are teaching their students will be essentially the exact same thing that I learned as a math major. If they are living in a four dimensional university, again most of math would be exactly the same.
If you know how to apply math to wherever it may be usefully applied. Seems that many people put math in a box and do not consider its applicability to other problems, like calculating their unweighted high school GPAs before posting on these forums.
Those intelligent seven toed (fingered?) creatures would be doing arithmetic in base 7 or base 14.
I thought the link was going to be this op-ed:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-10-23/math-high-school-algebra-data-statistics%3f_amp=true
Freakonomics guy and Stanford prof advocating for a complete redesign of high school math to focus on data science.
http://freakonomics.com/podcast/math-curriculum/ may give an idea of Levitt’s ideas for those who do not have a Los Angeles Times subscription and have run out of free articles there.
"Those intelligent seven toed (fingered?) creatures would be doing arithmetic in base 7 or base 14. "
True. Base 14 multiplication tables would be different than base 10 multiplication tables.
However, differential calculus, stochastic processes, control theory, and linear programming would be the same. The normal distribution would have a different name, and the various symbols would probably be drawn differently. You would still need addition, multiplication, division, subtraction, differentiation, probability, expected values, …
A prime number by any other name would still be indivisible, except by itself and by 1.
If they had four or eight fingers, they may find some aspects of computers to be easier than we find them.
I read the article and am confused as to what is wrong with this. I don’t see it saying anywhere that the actual mathematics content is going to be watered down. If that content can also be put into cross-disciplinary context in a way that helps students draw connections and see the relevance of what they’re learning… what’s upsetting about that?
Math is fact. Math is truth. Religion, politics, socioeconomic issues, culture, are subjective. Math is objective. Ironically, few things in life are absolute, but math is one of them. 1+1=2 regardless of your personal issues, society’s issues, etc. “Rehumanizing” math is to take it from it’s purest form and intention and introduce it to the human condition which is inconsistent with what math is.
Now, should there be classes and lessons regarding applying math to the human condition? Absolutely. Econ, Sociology, Poli Sci (and others I’m sure) should all be doing that. Econ can get very math heavy (calc, stats).
But the math itself is sacred. One’s upbringing, ethnicity, socioeconomic issues don’t matter. How or why one feels doesn’t matter in math. If people are concerned about facts / knowledge (like math) being used as a tool of oppression, they should realize all the more reason to learn math. Once learned, at whatever level, apply it to the human condition all day long. But for god sake, don’t put math through the fuzzy lens of pop culture, historical revisionism or anything that takes the focus away from what math truly is.
Isn’t it a subjective opinion to say that math is sacred (a term normally used in religion)? 
As a practical matter, K-12 math is not just pure math, but also (in theory) how to apply math. Remember “word problems”? Of course, that does not necessarily mean that teaching how to apply math is effective, given the difficulties people who have completed four years of high school math have with calculating GPA, understanding personal finance, or positioning two linear objects at a right angle using a tape measure.
But then this whole controversy seems mostly about just being careful in choosing example application problems than anything else. An example from http://freakonomics.com/podcast/math-curriculum/ is an old SAT question that Levitt mentions that one would not see as appropriate today: “If a package containing twenty cigarettes costs fifteen cents, how many cigarettes can be bought for ninety cents?”. Probably most people reading this can think of offensive (by race/ethnicity or otherwise) example word problems that one would not use in K-12 math (if not, consider the examples shown in this article: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/pimps-hos-math-test-earns-eighth-grade-teacher-time-out-n584191 ).
Occasionally, such issues show up in science as well. For example: https://middleburycampus.com/44073/news/chemistry-test-question-invokes-nazi-gas-chambers-controversy-ensues-after-satirical-newspaper-makes-it-public/ .
@catahoula I love your high regard for 95% of the population.
I agree with the anonymous “expert” who made it clear that yes, we do want a more diverse group of people interested and well schooled in math. However, this “rehumaniizing” doesn’t seem like an inclusive way to reach this goal.
My best (and favorite) math teacher was my 8th grade math teacher, who was an African American woman. Our class was a mix of black & white students, and she taught us how to do math … but while we worked, she taught us about many other things. It was in her class that I first heard the music of Porgy & Bess. I appreciated being challenged to learn (she had high expectations), and I appreciated being exposed to cultural things that I would probably not otherwise have learned about … one thing was not taught at the expense of the other … she found a way to help us learn more than just math, and she did it in an uplifting way. Most of all, I am glad she taught me to love math as much as she did. I honestly believe too many people “hate” math & just want the rest of us to commiserate with them. When I see people wanting to polarize with math, I figure they are folks who don’t particularly like math.
I’m a huge fan of math, and anything that gets more kids involved/interested is a good thing. But like many education ideas, this will fail. Kids who are looking for an excuse to not study and learn will just use the excuse that this topic is racist, classist, [fill in your ‘list’].
I think the biggest problem with math education these days is that prior to the high school level, you have a lot of people teaching math who don’t like it and do not really conceptually “get” math. Math CAN be fun - it can be puzzles and problem solving and thinking out of the box.
I am someone who went to a really old time K-8 school that taught math in a very dry rote way. I struggled and hated it. When I got to high school and studied with someone who actually knew and got math, it was a whole new world. I ended up a straight A student and went on to get math and comp sci degree in a competitive tech program.
We need more math specialists in the education world. They naturally will bring broader topics to the classroom.
My favorite math teacher also happens to have been an African American woman, but I’m pretty sure all she taught us was math. That said, the only non-math thing I remember her mentioning, is that she had a son who died of leukemia as a child.
Teachers like the one @kelsmom had are true gems in the education system. It’s not just math, but for any subject, some teachers just have the gift of engaging students in the subject matter in an interesting and relevant way. I understand the need for some level of standardization of course material and teaching methods, but when taken to extremes, it limits our teachers from best applying their own talents, and I suspect makes their job less satisfying. The institutionalization of political viewpoints is not a step in the right direction.
Now Mathematics oppresses people?
You cannot make this stuff up.
“One leads students into exploring math’s roots “in the ancient histories of people and empires of color.” Another asks how math and science have been used to oppress and marginalize people of color, and who holds power in a math classroom.”
Doesn’t take an Einstein to see where this Seattle idea is headed. Meanwhile, back in the real world, kids in Singapore, Estonia, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Ireland, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, etc… kick our kids’ collective teeth in, in the very oppressive subject of Mathematics.
The U.S. places #31 in the PISA ranking, so we should now spend more time in math class concentrating on ethnicity? #55 here we come!