Teachers Conference Lecture Declares Math a ‘Tool of Oppression’

Math can oppress students of color due to the inequitable system it was developed under, according to a slide presentation at the University of Oregon’s 2023 mathematics conference reviewed by The Daily Signal.

Oregon high school math teacher Jered Ratliff delivered a lecture called “Mathematics as a tool of oppression” at the Northwest Mathematics Conference in Portland on Oct. 14, which was sponsored by the University of Oregon.

“Recent politicization of mathematics has driven questions about its pedagogy in our schools, but these questions fail to recognize mathematics as a potentially oppressive tool,” Ratliff’s description of the lecture reads. “Mathematics is our single most powerful academic building block, but the power it holds frequently allows it to inhibit discovery and societal good.”

Ratliff “is interested in exploring intersectionality of social justice and global power dynamics created by math systems,” according to his biographical information on the math conference website.

The math education system in America was developed 200 years ago when only the children of white landowners were educated, according to Ratliff’s presentation.

“It’s not saying that specific questions or standards themselves are racist,” a slide depicting a text conversation between Ratliff and a friend from a few years ago reads. “But if the way we are teaching continually leaves people of color behind, why wouldn’t I want to dismantle the process that is least somewhat responsible for that inequity?”

Ratliff continues to say that “math proficiency doesn’t mean superiority.” Only 30% of Oregon students tested as proficient in math in 2022, according to the Oregon Department of Education.

Ratliff is involved with Oregon’s Math Alignment Project, which released a series of modules on “equitable math” practices to disrupt “the systemic inequities of schooling.” Discussion questions in the modules encourage teachers to consider how their “potential bias” might “inadvertently reinforce inequities.”

In the October presentation’s description, Ratliff said he would “share about math’s tremendous, often subtle, power that is more often used to stifle than it is to inspire.”

“My dream is to see math fully and mutually used as a tool not to subvert but instead for liberation,” he wrote in the session’s description.

Ratliff told The Daily Signal he is seeking ways to “make math better.”

“I’ve always loved math,” Ratliff said in an email. “I’ve taught it in high school for 16 years. I don’t think it is racist. I do think it’s oppressive to many people, and I believe that is largely because I have yet to find how we have addressed the rapidly changing world by also innovating our math learning, discovery, and education.”

From 1650 to present-day America, mathematical discovery has often been rooted in American colonialism, chattel slavery, and so-called subjugating systems, Ratliff said. He elaborated on this idea in his essay that was the basis of his Northwest Mathematics Conference presentation last month.

One of the conference slides said the “U.S. was once at the forefront of innovations benefiting humanity” but “shifted from innovator to subverting and stymying progress.” Thus, America is an “agent of ‘re-oppression.’”

Ratliff listed three steps to flatten the so-called math hierarchy in his slideshow: “Identify a structure or system with mathematics as its basis,” “identify those in positions of power in this structure,” and “identify those traditionally at the mercy of this structure” in order to “dismantle the hierarchy.”

The University of Oregon did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/11/17/teachers-conference-lecture-declares-math-tool-oppression/ ?

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I Goes to Kollege

The American university, the crown jewel of the US economic engine and enabler of social mobility and success, has been reduced to a Maoist reeducation camp. The time has come to deal with this socially destructive institution.

With the destruction of many of the ancient European universities during World War 2, American schools took their place as the premier locations for learning and research. The recent movie, Oppenheimer, reminded Americans of the success of the Manhattan Project. Virtually all of the major researchers involved in the development of the bomb came from universities from coast to coast: Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin, and UC Berkeley to name a few. Even the major corporations that supplied key materials for the Manhattan Project had top US-trained researchers producing the needed high-purity graphite, explosives, metals and other critical components throughout the life of the program. The university was the leader in research and development. It was the envy of the world.

Let’s fast-forward 80 years, and what is the university today? One would minimally expect that a high school graduate going to college would attain the following skills in four years (and not seven). Generally, they do not.

*General knowledge. A college graduate should be well-enough informed to discuss, say American history or basic concepts in science. During my days at Harvard, the “Core” was in place to guarantee that all students were exposed to major academic disciplines beyond their fields of concentration.

*Thinking skills. Much of what we do beyond college has nothing to do specifically with the courses we take. If we have gained skills that allow us to think, reason, analyze, and classify, we are hopefully prepared to succeed in a chosen profession. One of the most exceptional experiences I had at Harvard was completely unplanned. I had a tutor with whom I would periodically meet to discuss a research project of mutual interest. One day, as we sat in his office, a colleague told him that they needed to immediately determine an applicant's acceptance/rejection status for a Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School. I asked to excuse myself, but the second professor told me to stay put. He told my tutor that the student had outstanding grades, great recommendations, and high GRE scores. My fellow turned to him and said, “There is nothing in her record to suggest an ounce of creativity.” With that, she was rejected, and my whole view on approaching research was changed.

*Professional training. Unlike in Israel, where a student enters directly into medical or legal studies without a four-year university prologue, US students generally do not receive any professional training at college. Engineers and computer scientists necessarily do, but many of those pursuing professional degrees can study government or literature and only focus on professional training later. One can debate which system is better, but the fact is that there are lots of students graduating with heavy debt loads and no marketable skills to earn the money they need to pay off their loans. There’s a reason why AOC, Joe Biden, and others want you to pay off the student loans that others took out.

It is no coincidence that large and sometimes violent protests against Israel are taking place at US universities. Instead of focusing on the topics above, the universities have devolved into Maoist reeducation centers. DEI, intersectionality, white privilege, trans athletes in women’s sports, race-separated dorms, and graduation ceremonies—these foci have made universities play-acting centers for children who are simply not serious. The $64,000 I paid for four years at Harvard in the mid-80s is about what one year would cost. Student families paying such enormous sums might expect their children to receive a high-quality education. Instead, they are taught that groups that have been historically discriminated against and less prosperous—women, minorities, gays, etc.--are victims and cannot, repeat, be victimizers or racists.

On the other hand, generally, successful groups such as whites, Asians, and Jews are perpetual victimizers and can never be victims. And so it was that the day after a Holocaust-level massacre of Jews in Israel proper, 31 Harvard-recognized organizations declared that any violence in the region was the fault of Israel (=Jews). Their ideologically rigid system does not allow for Jews to be victims. However, there is no shortage of horrendous videos of Jews being shot, beheaded, burned to death, and taken into captivity. The Palestinian terrorists, falling into the victim category, cannot be victimizers. So even when they recorded their murder of innocent kids at a rave, the kids must be the guilty party. They cannot allow themselves to go against the intersectionality system, so they say that Israel did the killing or that nothing really happened.

The professors who have taught this tripe for generations will be the last people to stick their necks out to tell their Frankenstein students that they are wrong. The only redemption for white students is to join the “victims” in genocide-encouraging marches to at least show that they are on the right side. The university has fallen from intellectual greatness to ideological insanity in the space of only a few decades.

As some have pointed out, the same ones who rallied for BLM after George Floyd died are the same ones who show up for climate rallies and are now carrying placards demanding the death of 8 million Jews in Israel. They always have to join the victim groups in order not to be, heaven forfend, considered a victimizer.

The greater problem for the Republic is that all of the “important people” are university graduates. The story of the guy who went from the mailroom to CEO (Barry Diller, Dick Grasso) is a thing of the past. All CEO’s, politicians, and news staffers are the products of the modern university. They generally do not shed their ideology as they move from college out into “the real world”. One woman wrote in the Spectator that all of her friends support the Hamas terrorists, and she believes this outcome is a result of their getting their news from Tik Tok, YouTube, and Instagram.

And thus you have your massive 300,000 person pro-terrorists marches in London, and similar if smaller events in the US, Australia and continental Europe. Israel was dumb enough to treat Yaha Sinwar for cancer; he returned the favor by planning and organizing the slaughter of 1,200 people—and the “educated” world is on his side. The universities refuse to stop the marches and threats to Jewish students not for First Amendment reasons; rather, this is the world outlook they have given their students. It would be like a coach complaining when his football team won.

To rein in the universities and make real change first requires the US government to leave the student loan business. Let banks and universities determine the risks of giving loans to students who wish to study imperial basket weaving in Inner Mongolia between 1100 and 1150. The next step is to condition any federal grants or aid, of which universities receive billions of dollars each year, on the performance of graduates in the work market. A college graduate should ultimately be able to support himself or herself. The Obama administration actually wanted to measure university performance by analyzing how well graduates fared, but the plan was nixed.

The time has come to tie governmental largess to the success of schools in giving their students an education that can help provide for them for the rest of their lives. If a certain percentage of graduates are not employed or underemployed, the school in question will not receive federal research funding until the situation is rectified. A university without federal funds might rethink its grievance “studies” programs that produce nothing for American society but are therapeutic for pampered yet somehow aggrieved students and faculty.

Some law firms had already stated—before 10/7—that they would not take Ivy League graduates due to their new training. There are many anecdotal stories of college graduates lacking basic writing or thinking skills. The university was once the domain of the privileged; now, it is where an American student goes when he or she turns 18. We need to fix the universities to make our society more successful, productive, and cohesive. And if the universities resist, tax their endowment income. The university has become a destructive force in US society. The time has come for a correction.

https://townhall.com/columnists/alanjosephbauer/2023/11/27/i-goes-to-kollege-n2631642

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Australia: From the ski lodge to the sea: our kids will never be free

Kevin Donnelly

As to why so many students wagged school last week protesting about the supposed man-made climate catastrophe and why so many will protest this week against Israel’s right to defend itself against the evil and barbaric invasion by Hamas … there are numerous reasons.

In 2006, Al Gore’s misleading video (in that it contains known errors) An Inconvenient Truth became routine viewing in schools across Australia spreading climate alarmism. One of the three cross-curricula priorities in the national curriculum is sustainability, mandating a deep green environmental perspective on all subjects.

Based on a revisionist view of history involving feminist, Marxist, and post-colonial theories students are taught, Western Civilisation is guilty of imperialism and white supremacy and that there is nothing unique or worth defending about liberal democracies like Australia or Israel.

Israel is seen as an artificial state created by white imperialists that has no right to exist. Hamas terrorists, instead of being evil and inhumane, are lauded as freedom fighters dedicated to liberating Palestinians from years of subjugation.

Students chanting from ‘the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ have no idea of where the Jordan River is or appreciate the land of Israel is the ancestral home of the Jews. It’s no wonder they are so easily duped.

Schools have long since stopped teaching students to think rationally and logically. Clear thinking has been replaced by emotion and cant. Emotion is the deciding factor determining how young people respond to argument and debate about contemporary issues.

‘I think, therefore I am’ has been replaced by ‘I feel, therefore I am right’ and any who believe otherwise are condemned as politically incorrect and cancelled for committing thought crime. The prevalence of cognitive dissonance adds to the heady mix of irrationality and ignorance.

To be human is to search for meaning and a sense of belonging as well as a commitment to something that gives purpose and direction. While the search for wisdom and truth as well as religious belief once provided that need, we now live in a world where subjectivism, ennui, and uncertainty prevail.

For many students climate alarmism is a religious faith where Greta Thunberg is the messiah and whatever the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change dictates reads as holy script. That the world is about to end is taken as beyond doubt leading to young girls terrified they can never be mothers.

Students marching in solidarity with banners declaring ‘free Palestine’, ‘Israel is a terrorist state’, and ‘the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ find purpose and meaning that gives their vacuous lives direction.

As argued by GK Chesterton, ‘When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.’

It is also vital to realise climate change alarmism and antisemitism are just two examples highlighting how schools have been turned into re-education camps where students are indoctrinated with mind control and group think.

Kindergarten children are taught gender and sexuality are fluid and dynamic and not God-given and biologically determined. Boys are taught men are inherently violent and misogynist and the curriculum, instead of patriotism and nation-building, teaches guilt, and self-loathing.

Why this has happened is clear. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s concept of cultural hegemony, over the last 40 years the cultural-left has taken control of the school curriculum and infected vulnerable students with neo-Marxist critical theory and Woke ideology.

After the second world war, Marxist academics argued to win the West, the focus had to be on infiltrating and capturing capitalist society’s ideological state apparatus (ISA). As argued by Louis Althusser:

‘But now for what is essential. What distinguishes the ISAs from the (Repressive) State Apparatus is the following basic difference: the Repressive State Apparatus functions by violence, whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses function by ideology.’

Althusser argues cultural-Marxists must take control of key institutions, including family, church, political and trade union organisations, the media, schools and universities. Turbocharged by the late 1960s Cultural Revolution, the left’s long march has succeeded beyond expectations.

Given schools have become neo-Marxist-inspired indoctrination camps, it’s understandable why thousands of parents across Australia are either home-schooling their children or establishing their own community schools.

Such an education is often religious in character where students are taught to be culturally literate, intellectually robust and morally and spiritually grounded. Instead of vague and ephemeral values, schools are committed to teaching virtues including love, courage, moderation, wisdom, and justice.

Instead of promoting language control, group think and mob hysteria, such an education is also based on rationality, reason and common sense. Much-needed attributes in this time of intellectual dishonesty and conformity and where intolerance is re-badged as tolerance.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/11/from-the-ski-lodge-to-the-sea-our-kids-will-never-be-free/

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My other blogs: Main ones below

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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