The new California Mathematics Framework promises to minimize racial inequity at the expense of mathematical excellence—and the promise of the Golden State.
"Equity" is destroying our educational system. In school, I didn't learn about any mathematician of any color. We just learned math, which is already colorblind. Most kids go from K-12 without learning the name of a single mathematician, with the exception of Pythagoras, and only because it's called the Pythagorean Theorem.
And it ultimately doesn't matter, because math is the same math across races.
As a 21-year middle school math teacher, I will tell you that the focus on high-school curricula is welcome, but should not be the priority.
There needs to be a much heavier focus on elementary level math. In order to be able to do any abstract or general mathematics, students need a solid foundation in numeracy. They need to know their times tables tables as well as they know the alphabet. They need to be able to add and subtract two-digit numbers in their head and 3-4 digits quickly on paper. They need to know what fractions and decimals actually mean.
And, above all, we need to severely restrict the use of calculators. There has been a misguided notion that one can separate "concepts" of math from the actualy mechanical calculation work, and therefore having a machine do the 'grunt work' allows the human to do the thinking. This goes against everything we know of cognitive science - the two are intimately linked.
You can't think critically unless you have the relevant facts stored in your brain. Having a machine do the work weakens the mind in the same way that parking close to every store and always using the elevator weakens your body.
As I always tell my students: If a machine is doing the work, nobody needs you.
We need a new sign posted on the door of every aircraft right next to the "Wi-Fi on board" sign so that passengers can inspect it as they board. "The engineers who designed this plane did NOT study math in California".
We can do the same thing with medical devices, cars, cranes, vaccines and any other products that will kill you if they go wrong.
There is a term in product design called "planned obsolescence". California is in the process of obsoleting itself.
It's hard to believe that the people there have become so stupid in such a short time....g.
“Under the framework, the range of student backgrounds, learning differences, and perspectives, taken collectively, are seen as an instructional asset that can be used to launch and support all students in a deep and shared exploration of the same context and open task,”
Good heavens...What does that actually...say? It's bureaucratic nothing speak in spades!
What's a "same context and open task"? How can one explore it?
Is Kamala Harris ghostwriting the CMF?
What's not fair is kids; black, brown, Asian, white, or whatever, not being able to do mathematics at grade level. Mathematics for the average citizen hasn't changed that much in millennia.
We've had any number of "systems" for teaching mathematics...there seems to come a new one every couple of years, each one about as successful as the last. And while learning skills fall along a spectrum, it appears that people in the lower deciles economically tend to have more limited skills.
One can continue to argue that the methodology of teaching mathematics is flawed, but at some point one has to understand that the answer may not be where you are looking.
Charter schools have, time and again, proven that those being left behind at our public schools can learn given the right environment, and that environment includes accountability on many levels.
It would be my thinking that instead of condemning the private schools for whatever the reason du jour might be, public schools, their management, their teachers, and their unions could adopt the concepts of accountability and get back to the teaching of mathematics as a wonderous language in which to explore our world.
Liberals. “We’re going to solve global warming by introducing a pall over the Earth which will block the sun’s rays.” In other news, “liberals mandate every house, car, bicycle, and yes, even your horse will be required to install solar panels.”
Liberals. “We’re going to end gun violence forever by seizing all firearms.” In other news, “prosecutors arrange for the president’s son to have his felony gun crimes waived.”
Liberals. “We are a sanctuary city, we will pay for all illegal aliens.” In other news “We can’t afford illegal aliens so send them to conservative states.”
Liberals. “Look how high our IQs are, we understand math.” In other news, “we’re getting rid of standards so everybody can get an A in math.”
This is just another play from the Democrats' covert-racism playbook. The underlying assumption is that black people can't do math without careful coddling that largely prevents them from ever achieving math proficiency.
When asking students to get the correct answer to a math problem is "racist," students are never going to learn to get the correct answer. And getting the correct answer is the ONLY point of using math in the real world. Without the correct answers to math problems, we can't do science or engineering on any level.
But then, that seems to be part of the Left's plan--replacing science with "The Science." And they wouldn't want anyone to be able to do math well enough to understand their fraudulent use of statistics.
The soft racism of low expectations. It’s become a trite saying I guess, but it’s become a cancer that is eating the west from the inside out.
Cowards and low-functioning academics - all of them. They impose their incoherent ideology on children across the state, and don’t have the courage to defend their ideas to the public.
School choice would solve this problem, but that will never happen in California. Newsom couldn’t care less. His children attend private school.
Mathematics is the language of science. Numeracy is as important as literacy. California in its public schools is failing on both counts. The basic level of literacy in California is equivalent to Rwanda's. Many African and Caribbean countries have a higher rate of literacy and numeracy.
The tech industry can continue to import numerate engineers from around the global or indeed move to where there is a high preponderance of numerate people. For example in Britain, Cambridgeshire is now known as the Silicon Fen. The numeracy and literacy of England and Wales has been increasing because of a focus on phonics and teaching the basics in maths.
In Mississippi, literacy is on the increase, again because of phonics. (See the op-ed in the NYT from a month or so ago). The costs of doing business in Mississippi with a literate and numerate workforce will be far less than in Silicon Valley. If the education department can do this in Mississippi why can't they in California or is the will simply not there because of incompetent bureaucrats?
The big question is why is the California electorate content to neglect California's most important long term resource -- namely its young? A mind is a terrible thing to waste -- to quote an old slogan.
Every time anyone hears the word equity, they should correct the person using it by saying "by equity, do you mean enforcing equal outcomes through racial quotas?"
Perhaps part of the issue involves the quality (or lack thereof) of public school math and science teachers. Let's face it - the best and brightest mathematicians aren't teaching in public schools, because there are much better paying jobs elsewhere.
This is influenced in-part by the rigid union-created pay structures in most public school districts. It doesn't matter what you teach; pay is a strictly function of a teacher's education level and seniority. So a middle or high school math or science teacher with, say, a masters degree and 10 years of service gets paid the same as a gym teacher or a kindergarten teacher. Not to say that the gym or kindergarten teachers aren't important, because they are. But there's a lot more involved - both inside and outside the classroom - in teaching math or science. This is especially true in cases in small and medium sized schools where the math and science teachers have to prepare for and teach multiple subjects.
Californian politicians will need the electorate to pretty rubbish at math (maths?) if they hope to convince the voters that paying gazillions in "reparations" is not going to bankrupt their state.
It would seem that two wildly disparate groups have reached the same conclusion:
"Indeed, the ideological gap is basically nonexistent between CMF supporters and reactionaries who once thought black and Latino kids were cognitively or culturally incapable of advanced mathematics."
“After seeing Natalia’s success, she signed up her younger son, Matthew, when he was 6. He complained about doing math classes at 9 a.m. on Saturdays when his friends were playing sports, but it paid off. Matthew, now 10, was able to skip the third grade.” - from the NYPost link.
One stupid extreme or another. Where are the adults in the room??
"Equity" is destroying our educational system. In school, I didn't learn about any mathematician of any color. We just learned math, which is already colorblind. Most kids go from K-12 without learning the name of a single mathematician, with the exception of Pythagoras, and only because it's called the Pythagorean Theorem.
And it ultimately doesn't matter, because math is the same math across races.
As a 21-year middle school math teacher, I will tell you that the focus on high-school curricula is welcome, but should not be the priority.
There needs to be a much heavier focus on elementary level math. In order to be able to do any abstract or general mathematics, students need a solid foundation in numeracy. They need to know their times tables tables as well as they know the alphabet. They need to be able to add and subtract two-digit numbers in their head and 3-4 digits quickly on paper. They need to know what fractions and decimals actually mean.
And, above all, we need to severely restrict the use of calculators. There has been a misguided notion that one can separate "concepts" of math from the actualy mechanical calculation work, and therefore having a machine do the 'grunt work' allows the human to do the thinking. This goes against everything we know of cognitive science - the two are intimately linked.
You can't think critically unless you have the relevant facts stored in your brain. Having a machine do the work weakens the mind in the same way that parking close to every store and always using the elevator weakens your body.
As I always tell my students: If a machine is doing the work, nobody needs you.
We need a new sign posted on the door of every aircraft right next to the "Wi-Fi on board" sign so that passengers can inspect it as they board. "The engineers who designed this plane did NOT study math in California".
We can do the same thing with medical devices, cars, cranes, vaccines and any other products that will kill you if they go wrong.
There is a term in product design called "planned obsolescence". California is in the process of obsoleting itself.
It's hard to believe that the people there have become so stupid in such a short time....g.
“Under the framework, the range of student backgrounds, learning differences, and perspectives, taken collectively, are seen as an instructional asset that can be used to launch and support all students in a deep and shared exploration of the same context and open task,”
Good heavens...What does that actually...say? It's bureaucratic nothing speak in spades!
What's a "same context and open task"? How can one explore it?
Is Kamala Harris ghostwriting the CMF?
What's not fair is kids; black, brown, Asian, white, or whatever, not being able to do mathematics at grade level. Mathematics for the average citizen hasn't changed that much in millennia.
We've had any number of "systems" for teaching mathematics...there seems to come a new one every couple of years, each one about as successful as the last. And while learning skills fall along a spectrum, it appears that people in the lower deciles economically tend to have more limited skills.
One can continue to argue that the methodology of teaching mathematics is flawed, but at some point one has to understand that the answer may not be where you are looking.
Charter schools have, time and again, proven that those being left behind at our public schools can learn given the right environment, and that environment includes accountability on many levels.
It would be my thinking that instead of condemning the private schools for whatever the reason du jour might be, public schools, their management, their teachers, and their unions could adopt the concepts of accountability and get back to the teaching of mathematics as a wonderous language in which to explore our world.
Liberals. “We’re going to solve global warming by introducing a pall over the Earth which will block the sun’s rays.” In other news, “liberals mandate every house, car, bicycle, and yes, even your horse will be required to install solar panels.”
Liberals. “We’re going to end gun violence forever by seizing all firearms.” In other news, “prosecutors arrange for the president’s son to have his felony gun crimes waived.”
Liberals. “We are a sanctuary city, we will pay for all illegal aliens.” In other news “We can’t afford illegal aliens so send them to conservative states.”
Liberals. “Look how high our IQs are, we understand math.” In other news, “we’re getting rid of standards so everybody can get an A in math.”
That’s a good essay from in an intern !
This is just another play from the Democrats' covert-racism playbook. The underlying assumption is that black people can't do math without careful coddling that largely prevents them from ever achieving math proficiency.
When asking students to get the correct answer to a math problem is "racist," students are never going to learn to get the correct answer. And getting the correct answer is the ONLY point of using math in the real world. Without the correct answers to math problems, we can't do science or engineering on any level.
But then, that seems to be part of the Left's plan--replacing science with "The Science." And they wouldn't want anyone to be able to do math well enough to understand their fraudulent use of statistics.
Equity is the same as "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".
This article perfectly encapsulates why communist ideals have failed, and why it must be rooted out and destroyed.
"...the board was left with two options: pull the bottom performers up, or push the top performers down. They did the easier thing." That sys it all.
The soft racism of low expectations. It’s become a trite saying I guess, but it’s become a cancer that is eating the west from the inside out.
Cowards and low-functioning academics - all of them. They impose their incoherent ideology on children across the state, and don’t have the courage to defend their ideas to the public.
School choice would solve this problem, but that will never happen in California. Newsom couldn’t care less. His children attend private school.
Very sad and very frustrating.
Mathematics is the language of science. Numeracy is as important as literacy. California in its public schools is failing on both counts. The basic level of literacy in California is equivalent to Rwanda's. Many African and Caribbean countries have a higher rate of literacy and numeracy.
The tech industry can continue to import numerate engineers from around the global or indeed move to where there is a high preponderance of numerate people. For example in Britain, Cambridgeshire is now known as the Silicon Fen. The numeracy and literacy of England and Wales has been increasing because of a focus on phonics and teaching the basics in maths.
In Mississippi, literacy is on the increase, again because of phonics. (See the op-ed in the NYT from a month or so ago). The costs of doing business in Mississippi with a literate and numerate workforce will be far less than in Silicon Valley. If the education department can do this in Mississippi why can't they in California or is the will simply not there because of incompetent bureaucrats?
The big question is why is the California electorate content to neglect California's most important long term resource -- namely its young? A mind is a terrible thing to waste -- to quote an old slogan.
Every time anyone hears the word equity, they should correct the person using it by saying "by equity, do you mean enforcing equal outcomes through racial quotas?"
Perhaps part of the issue involves the quality (or lack thereof) of public school math and science teachers. Let's face it - the best and brightest mathematicians aren't teaching in public schools, because there are much better paying jobs elsewhere.
This is influenced in-part by the rigid union-created pay structures in most public school districts. It doesn't matter what you teach; pay is a strictly function of a teacher's education level and seniority. So a middle or high school math or science teacher with, say, a masters degree and 10 years of service gets paid the same as a gym teacher or a kindergarten teacher. Not to say that the gym or kindergarten teachers aren't important, because they are. But there's a lot more involved - both inside and outside the classroom - in teaching math or science. This is especially true in cases in small and medium sized schools where the math and science teachers have to prepare for and teach multiple subjects.
Californian politicians will need the electorate to pretty rubbish at math (maths?) if they hope to convince the voters that paying gazillions in "reparations" is not going to bankrupt their state.
It would seem that two wildly disparate groups have reached the same conclusion:
"Indeed, the ideological gap is basically nonexistent between CMF supporters and reactionaries who once thought black and Latino kids were cognitively or culturally incapable of advanced mathematics."
“After seeing Natalia’s success, she signed up her younger son, Matthew, when he was 6. He complained about doing math classes at 9 a.m. on Saturdays when his friends were playing sports, but it paid off. Matthew, now 10, was able to skip the third grade.” - from the NYPost link.
One stupid extreme or another. Where are the adults in the room??