I remember how it was -- JR
Sunday, June 09, 2024
Math Teachers Group’s Push for Identity Politics Damages Math’s Inherent Equity
The world’s largest math education organization is injecting identity politics where it doesn’t belong—and undermining math education in the process.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics told teachers to “regularly and intentionally integrate more equity, justice, and culturally centered mathematics education” in every math lesson in a May 20 position statement,
The council argues that math education must respond to the “culture” of students, represented in “multidimensional identities,” including “race, ethnicity, religion, generation, gender, sexual orientation, education, class, occupation and socio-economic status, and disability.”
While proper math education, to an extent, can engage with culture, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ position incorporates a facet of culture that doesn’t need to touch math class; namely, identity politics, the idea that people are divided into subgroups based on factors such as race, gender, and sexual orientation.
There is a place in math education for interacting with the cultures of students. Classes that disregard it entirely can become governed by rote memorization, which prevents students from learning to think deeply and analyze context.
Culturally interrelated aspects of math include the history of math discovery and its practical applications, according to Jonathan Gregg, assistant professor of education at Hillsdale College, who holds a doctorate in math education.
Interacting with student thinking and highlighting the multiple ways to reach solutions allow teachers to leverage culture in the classroom, Gregg told The Daily Signal.
Yet the math teachers council advocates for centering math on the wrong aspects of culture.
Math education shouldn’t treat students as divided into identity groups, such as by race and sexual orientation, as the council’s statement recommends.
Teachers can try to understand and connect with their students by allowing them to ask questions and share their ideas, but math itself remains the same.
If teachers focus on “cultural practices” that distract from the subject at hand, a generation of students could graduate with an insufficient understanding of math and underdeveloped problem-solving skills.
“The truth or falsity of a mathematical proposition does not depend on a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, generation, gender, sexual orientation, education, class, occupation, socioeconomic status, or disability,” Hillsdale College Associate Professor of Mathematics David Gaebler told The Daily Signal.
The truth in math is timeless, unchanged by the constantly evolving ideology promoted in the council’s statement. Teachers who “leverage cultural knowledge and lived experiences as assets” as the council recommends in its statement, are powerless to change math’s truths.
The council’s interpretation of “culturally responsive math” could even violate parental rights, as many parents may not want their children to learn about sexual orientation or so-called social justice at school, in math class or elsewhere. (The council did not respond to The Daily Signal’s inquiry about that.)
The statement rejects a “color evasive” approach to math students, seemingly suggesting that educators should adjust their teaching approach on the basis of the student’s race.
Context matters in some math problems, giving it an element of subjectivity, and technical terms of mathematics can have multiple interpretations. Furthermore, some assignments ask questions with multiple answers, like “explain your reasoning” or “justify your answer,” questions that may have multiple right answers, but also wrong ones.
But if teachers fail to recognize math’s objectivity, the subject could forfeit its natural equity.
“If you ignore the objectivity of mathematics,” Gregg said, “you usually miss its connections to truth and (ironically) actually lose one of the ways that it, as a discipline, promotes equity—that it, on some level, is the same for us all and unifies us as human beings.”
Regardless of the color, background, religion, or class of the student solving a math problem, the correct answers are the same, making it equally accessible to all.
School districts, education departments, and teachers across the country have lost sight of this, causing more schools to see education through the lens of identity politics.
For example, Webster Groves School District in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, includes the personal pronouns “they/them” in math problems and employs “math interventionists” to fight so-called racism and gender bias in math classes, The Daily Signal reported.
The Oregon Department of Education instructed teachers to “dismantle systemic inequities” in math class, recommending that teachers reduce rules that “imply that certain skills and knowledge are valued more than others” and instead prioritize the “rights of the learner.”
Good math teachers need to recognize that even though there are usually multiple ways to get to the solution, math has right and wrong answers.
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics seems to be on the right track with its desire to include student collaboration in the math classroom. But by instructing its 38,000 members to undermine the objectivity of mathematics, it risks costing students critical logic and reasoning skills—as well as the opportunity to understand what makes math equitable.
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2 School Textbook Giants Replace ‘Sex’ With ‘Gender.’ Parents, Teachers Aren’t Buying
Two giants among publishers of children’s books and textbooks are selling the idea of “gender” to small children. But are Americans buying?
Scholastic, one of the world’s largest publishers and distributors of children’s books, released a “Resource Guide” for parents and teachers promoting its “Read With Pride” series. The guide is aimed at children of all ages, from birth to the end of high school.
Scholastic includes a glossary in the guide that defines “agender” (having no gender identity) and “allocishet” (a term for “people whose gender and sexuality are privileged by society”), among other terms that are hard for even adults to follow.
Scholastic’s guide is misreading the market. Educators oppose teaching young children about the concept of “gender.” A Pew survey from February found that 50% of teachers said students shouldn’t learn about “gender” in school (compared to 33% who said children should learn they can be a gender that is different from their sex).
A survey from the Public Religion Research Institute finds that 65% of Americans say they believe there are only two genders—male and female, a finding that contrasts sharply with Scholastic’s glossary.
New York-based Scholastic isn’t the only publisher pushing this ambiguous idea that you can “think” yourself into a gender that doesn’t match your biology.
London-based Pearson, the largest publisher of college textbooks but also a significant player in the K-12 market, once featured a textbook on sociology on its website that advocated use of “gender identity” instead of “biological sex” to describe individuals. The book approvingly cited the work of Alfred Kinsey, a trained zoologist who argued young children can benefit from sexual activity.
Pearson quietly removed much of its website material promoting gender as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion after a Heritage Foundation report exposed this content in June 2023.
For now, Scholastic still advertises books for children describing the idea of gender.
And gender is just that, an idea. Gayle Rubin, whose influential 1984 essay “Thinking Sex” explains the central concepts of so-called queer theory, says gender and sex aren’t “biological” entities but ideas that change over time. Accordingly, Scholastic’s glossary lists “genderfluid,” describing someone whose gender fluctuates.
The confusing definitions aren’t the primary issues. Queer advocates want children to be familiar with the words and the sexually infused content that follows. Rubin criticizes traditional boundaries around young children’s exposure to radical notions about the sexual act and gender identity, calling the scope of laws stopping children from engaging in “erotic interest and activity” (such as age-of-consent laws) as “breathtaking.” She describes these boundaries as oppressive instead of recognizing them as protective measures.
The number of organizations Scholastic lists as allies in the gender movement should certainly leave parents short of breath. Scholastic features the Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, which specializes in identifying “hate groups” and here decries “binary notions” of biology.
SPLC’s education arm, Learning for Justice, produces classroom material on critical race theory while offering “tools and practices” for talking about gender to “students of all ages.”
Teachers and parents should ask their school district officials whether curriculum coordinators are purchasing Scholastic’s gender materials. School boards and school district personnel have authority to acquire textbooks, so parents and educators alike should tell these local officials that they don’t want their children exposed to sexual content and ambiguous ideas on gender.
State superintendents of education and state school boards, who set academic standards, should include standards that stick to reality—we are born male or female. Teachers may help a boy or girl confused about his or her sex by including parents and families in discussions with children who show gender dysphoric symptoms, which often are accompanied by other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
State lawmakers may assist by considering the Given Name Act, which requires educators to address a student by the name and personal pronoun corresponding with a child’s birth certificate, unless teachers receive consent from parents to do otherwise.
Lawmakers in more than a half-dozen states have adopted these provisions. This proposal prevents school personnel from driving a wedge between children and their parents in crucial, health-related conversations.
Even with Scholastic and Pearson’s significant reach into textbook markets, policymakers, parents, and teachers don’t have to buy their definition of sex. Nor the confusion and explicit material that follows.
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Mixed results for Australian universities in international rankings
My student days are 50 years behind me so these results don't reflect on me personally for good or ill but I am still pleased to see three of the four that I went to in the top 40 worldwide.
I particularly liked my time doing my Masters at U.Syd, so I am pleased that it has kept up its high quality. It even pips most of America's "Ivies" LOL
Australian universities have boosted their international standing but regional universities have tumbled in the latest annual global rankings.
The University of Melbourne was the highest rated Australian institution taking 13th spot on the QS World University Rankings 2025, up one place.
The University of Sydney also fared well, rising to number 18 while the University of New South Wales maintained its 19th spot.
Australian National University in Canberra rose four places to 30, while Monash University in Melbourne came in at 37, up five places. The University of Queensland rounded out the top 40, up three places.
The top regional university was the University of Wollongong at number 167, down five places. It was followed by the University of Newcastle which was ranked at number 179, although it dropped five ranking spots.
Deakin University rose to 197 after ranking 233 in 2024. LaTrobe University came in at 217 rising from 242 in 2023.
The University of Canberra improved its ranking by 14 places to reach an equal 403rd position.
University of Wollongong acting vice-chancellor and president professor David Currow said the rankings reflect dedication and hard work of staff across UOW's network of campuses.
"The latest QS World University rankings underscore our ongoing commitment to excellence in research and sustainability," Professor Currow said.
"The University's remarkable performance in Research Citations is particularly noteworthy, highlighting the impactful research being conducted at UOW. These research streams address global challenges and contribute significantly to the advancing new knowledge."
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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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