Wednesday, December 08, 2021



California's proposed woke math curriculum alarms mathematicians, scientists

Hundreds of highly distinguished science and math professors have signed an open letter expressing "urgent concern" over California’s efforts to reform mathematics education in the name of social justice.

The letter, signed by 597 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals, said the California Department of Education’s (CDE) proposed new mathematics framework will aim to reduce achievement gaps by limiting the availability of advanced mathematical courses to middle schoolers and beginning high schoolers, making it more challenging for students to succeed in STEM at college.

The signatories also condemned the CDE’s "deeply worrisome trend" of favoring "trendy but shallow" courses like data science over "essential" mathematical tools like calculus and algebra.

The framework, the signatories argued, would have the opposite effect of what it intends by leading to a "de facto privatization of advanced mathematics K-12 education" and disproportionately harming lower-income students.

"Subjecting the children of our largest state to such an experiment is the height of irresponsibility," the letter said.

The signatories demanded that all students, regardless of background, have access to a math curriculum "with precision and rigor," and that students be offered multiple pathways to explore mathematics at varying grade levels of middle and high school.

"Far from being deliberately held back, all students should have the opportunity to be nurtured and challenged to fulfill their potential," the letter said. "This is not only for their own benefit but also for society and the nation’s economic competitiveness."

The open letter echoes similar concerns in an open letter over the summer, signed by more than 1,100 Californians working in science and technology, who argued it is "immoral and foolish to intentionally hold back the intellectual growth of students by forcing them to waste time in unchallenging classes."

The backlash forced the California Board of Education to postpone implementing the framework until May 2022, when it will review the curriculum again before it's finalized.

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Social-Emotional Learning: The Insidious Teaching Tool You’ve Never Heard Of

What is social-emotional learning?

By now, many Americans are aware of critical race theory, which makes race the focus of all aspects of American life. The philosophy categorizes individuals into groups of oppressors and victims, and is currently making its way through the political sphere, the military, and of course, education.

But less well known is its ideological cousin, social-emotional learning. The program seeks to indoctrinate kids into leftist ideology by reinforcing a series of critical race theory-based morals and values.

Jennifer McWilliams was working as a reading teacher at Frankton Elementary School in Indiana when she noticed that social-emotional learning was being taught as part of the curriculum at her school. When she voiced her concerns about the racist ideology, she was summarily fired.

McWilliams says there’s nothing good about social-emotional learning, and that it’s based in racist critical race theory.

“It is all negative,” she says, “When you understand the program fully, and you understand the framework and the ideology behind it, you will understand that it is not good. The entire social-emotional learning framework is based on the critical race theory ideology.”

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Chicago Public Schools’ New ‘Gender Equity’ Restroom Policy Ignores Biology, Invades Students’ Privacy

Chicago Public Schools are now requiring schools in the district to ensure all restrooms are “gender-neutral,” erasing single-sex spaces for males and females alike.

That will be not only harmful to the safety and privacy of young people, it’s also yet another disheartening decision to ignore biological differences between the sexes and to create an androgynous society.

On Nov. 27, Chicago Public Schools’ Twitter account announced the new policy, tweeting:

There cannot be true equity in our district without gender equity for our students and staff. Learn about how we’re requiring all schools to adopt new signage to make our restrooms more inclusive.

Via a brief video, Camie Pratt, chief Title IX officer for the Chicago Public Schools, explained the policy:

In compliance with new federal guidelines, all CPS students and staff will have fair and equitable access to bathroom facilities that align with their gender identity.

We will be providing all schools with updated signage that makes our bathrooms more inclusive. They will identify the fixtures available in each restroom and make it clear that all restrooms are open for use by anyone who feels comfortable.

Staff will continue to have staff-only bathrooms available to them.

According to the video, the signs will have descriptions such as:

Gender Neutral Washroom.

All Gender Restroom. This is a single-stall restroom. All gender identities and expressions are welcome here.

This is a gender-neutral restroom with multiple stalls. It is open to users of any gender identity or expression.

Men’s +: This restroom has both urinals and stalls. All who feel comfortable are welcome to use this restroom.

Women’s +: This restroom has stalls. All who feel comfortable are welcome to use this restroom.

There are 421 district-run elementary schools and 91 district-run high schools within the Chicago Public Schools system. The total number of restrooms involved was not immediately available.

According to the Chicago Public Schools’ website, last school year there were 340,658 children enrolled in those schools.

There are several problems inherent in the new school restrooms guidelines:

First, Pratt claims that the Chicago Public Schools system is making the change to be “in compliance with new federal guidelines.” Although there’s no federal law on the subject yet, President Joe Biden did issue an executive order on his second day in office on Jan. 21 “combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”

In that executive order, Biden cited Bostock v. Clayton County, the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision that “held that Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination ‘because of … sex’ covers discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation,” and contended that, by extension, so does Title IX.

Elections really do have consequences, and now school systems are using all this as an excuse to infringe on students’ privacy and safety.

Second, while someone needs to monitor Title IX compliance, Pratt and the other members of the school system responsible for that have taken Title IX too far and flipped it on its head.

Title IX is a civil rights law enacted to prohibit sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools. Passed in 1972, it surely never was intended to be utilized to open up previously private restroom spaces so that now girls are required to share bathrooms with boys and vice versa.

Erasing single-sex restrooms is an egregious misuse of Title IX. Forcing a young woman navigating female-specific puberty developments to share bathrooms with biological boys seems particularly cruel and hardly fair or “equitable.”

Third, so-called social justice issues such as transgender bathrooms are growing in prominence even though the population of transgender students remains vanishingly small.

In addition, while school administrations focus on “all-gender” bathrooms, the real purpose of schools—namely, to educate—seems to take a back seat to social engineering. According to recent statistics, Chicago Public Schools only graduates 84% of its students, and only 26% of 11th graders are proficient in reading and math.

Shouldn’t the school system put more emphasis and resources on helping Chicago students learn and less on changing bathroom signage?

Finally—and most importantly—this new policy obliterates privacy and safety for both girls and boys, young women and young men.

Single-sex restroom spaces are not just common sense, they provide a safe and private space for the most basic of human bodily functions. Imposing this policy by fiat on the entire district ensures the majority suffers for the sake of a tiny handful of transgender youth.

It’s not clear whether parents were polled or given a heads-up about this new policy beforehand.

A better solution might be to let each school decide its own restroom policies, or preferably to encourage schools to provide a third restroom option solely for students who are transgender.

Biological differences between the sexes are normal, and we should celebrate them—“vive la difference!”—not try to write them out of existence.

Policies such as Chicago’s are not only an abuse of Title IX and harmful to young people, they also push society down a path of imposing androgyny as orthodoxy.

Women, especially, have fought for decades to be treated equally. Restroom policies like Chicago’s are not a move toward “equality,” but toward a new kind of society where females, including their need for their own spaces, are erased in the name of “inclusion.”

How ironic is that?

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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)

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