The California education department is considering implementing a statewide math framework that promotes the concept that working to figure out a correct answer in math is an example of racism and white supremacy invading the classroom.
On their homepage for the Math Equity Toolkit, they write:
A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction is an integrated approach to mathematics that centers Black, Latinx, and Multilingual students in grades 6-8, addresses barriers to math equity, and aligns instruction to grade-level priority standards. The Pathway offers guidance and resources for educators to use now as they plan their curriculum, while also offering opportunities for ongoing self-reflection as they seek to develop an anti-racist math practice. The toolkit “strides” serve as multiple on-ramps for educators as they navigate the individual and collective journey from equity to anti-racism.
Lots of jargon, but basically, the Bill and Melinda Gates-funded math, tells educators to focus on their biases. It assumes all whites are racist.
“White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,” the document states. “Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.”
You must buy that premise. It’s not open to discussion and all whites are painted with the same brush.
The proposed California framework provides examples of how “white supremacy culture” has infiltrated math classes in schools:
- The focus is on getting the “right” answer.
- Independent practice is valued over teamwork or collaboration.
- “Real-world math” is valued over math in the real world.
- Students are tracked (into courses/pathways and within the classroom).
- Participation structures reinforce dominant ways of being.
Additionally, the document asserts the means by which teachers assess student learning in math is based on white supremacy culture, as demonstrated by:
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- Students are required to “show their work.”
- Grading practices are focused on lack of knowledge.
- Language acquisition is equated with mathematical proficiency.
The proposed California framework continues to claim these common practices perpetuate white supremacy culture create and sustain institutional and systemic barriers to equity for Black, Latinx, and Multilingual students. In order to dismantle these barriers, we must identify what it means to be an antiracist math educator.
In other words, we are all being prepared for whites to become the minority, and a hated one at that.
In the section that criticizes the concept of “getting the ‘right’ answer” in math, the document states:
The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so. Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity [sic] as well as fear of open conflict [sic].
California might well adopt this racist, idiotic program that keeps kids dumb.
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