Quote:
Originally Posted by GamerGurlHeather
First off, how is this Communism?
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From EquitableMath.org,
"A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction: Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction," page 9: "Identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views."
Nobody talks like that except a communist. Those are dog-whistle words used by communists.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GamerGurlHeather
Secondly, how do you consider this racist? Against whom and what race is doing the racism? What color are the student that are the victims, what color are the teachers? What color are the administrators? What if the classroom is mixed or multi-racial?
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The document I quoted above is accusing white people of creating an educational system that is racist against students of color; it is blaming achievement gap on white people. When you blame an entire race for something, it is racism. And it's absolutely abusive to white people to state that their cultural values and beliefs are examples of racism.
For example:
"White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when...
Preconceived expectations are steeped in the dominant culture.
This is a classic example of either/or thinking. If parents don’t show the characteristics of what I think a good parent is, then that parent is bad. If students don’t show the characteristics of what I think is a good student, then that student is bad. This thinking creates meritocracy in the classroom: Students have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and if they fail it is their fault. It does not give room for the systemic reasons students fail, which often lie in problematic expectations".
So, this is stating that expecting a student to succeed is setting them up to fail and is racism? Holding white people and/or white teachers accountable for failures of students of color is abuse of white people. Holding teachers responsible for the failures of any student who is failing because the student is not putting in effort is also abuse of the teacher.
Ironically, while placing lowered expectations on students of color (which is an example of racism), this document places very high expectations on white teachers in how they are supposed to teach math, and shifts responsibilities away from the student and their parents onto the teacher, making the teacher over-accountable. It makes it sound as though the student's success is so fragile that it can be disrupted by a teacher saying or doing the wrong thing--which can derail the student's entire path in life.
The entire document adds many layers of complication to teaching math.
"Students are tracked (into courses/pathways and within the classroom).
Too often students are tracked based on the notion that adults know what the right thing is for them, which does not allow room for student agency, reinforcing paternalism and powerhoarding. Often, placement into different tracks reflect subjective metrics of innate ability without acknowledging prior opportunities or experiences. Following the same vein, leadership often decides which teacher is right for which course without allowing input from the teachers, students, or parents."
This is just good advice, and doing the opposite is not white supremacy culture. Actually, being colorblind would solve this, as it would not assume anything about innate abilities, and would by default take into account the student's prior experiences, talents, aptitudes, and etc.
Much of the rest of this document ascribes traits to white supremacy culture that do not belong to white supremacy, and it suggests things to do that are just common sense and part of good teaching. It is insulting to white people to say that bad teaching is "white supremacy culture."
In fact, this document is a big to-do over nothing really. A lot of effort and over-thinking went into the creation of this document. Basically it sums up this way: "white teachers are holding back students of color by being bad teachers, which was caused by white supremacy culture. Here are many examples of bad teaching/white supremacy. Any one of these mistakes can derail the student of color for life." This would imply a great deal of fragility in students.
"While access to grade-level content for every student is the responsibility of schools and essential for equity, a focus on content alone is insufficient for achieving meaningful mathematical power for all students. When only focusing on content without applying a culturally responsive lens or strategic scaffolding, there is a risk of perpetuating white
supremacy culture and inequities."
So, students of color need to be taught math in a special way in order to succeed? That is racist.
The "culturally responsive lense" or "strategic scaffolding" is an example of someone overthinking and overcomplicating the teaching of mathematics. All the children have access to mathematics, as it is a core class taught to all the students, and no one is actively blocking any of the children from learning it. Children do not need to be taught mathematics in a way that is culturally relevant to them in order to learn it; children need to be taught that it is important for them to learn math, and it is a key pillar to their future success in life. The children need to pay attention to the subject matter and invest time and work into learning it. Some children come into the class already knowing fully that mathematics is an important subject to take seriously and to work hard at learning; others may come into the class not wanting to be there, not interested in it, and not thinking it's important--just another place they have to be. It's not a teacher's fault that some students may come into the class not taking it seriously. It's not that teacher's job to change that student's mind so that they take it seriously. That is the parents' job. The teacher can and probably will try, if they are so inclined, but it should not be a requirement for them to keep their job. There are many things that are outside of the control of the teacher.