Florida rejects 41% of new math textbooks, citing critical race theory among its reasons

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I don't know critical race theory but math and formal logic are absolute truths everyone of intelligence knows this. True for thousands of years. Nothing at all related to race or age or nationality whatsoever. Anyone who says otherwise is wrong and dumb. It's not opinion
I taught logic.
 
Not seeing the textbooks, I can only guess what was included in them. Florida might be correct. People trying to sneak biased messages in textbooks is a known problem. It was a ploy used by religious advocates. But once you start using terms like "woke" and "critical race theory", you definitely are discussing political ideas- not fact.
 
Warrigal said:
To my mind this could be as silly as some little problems using names like Carlos and Abelina instead of Bob and Betty. How shocking to think that inclusive language might be the best way to teach maths to little kids.
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It goes a little deeper than that. It's an attempt by "woke" teachers to infuse into a formerly neutral subject the language of "anti-racism" and other current thinking.

Seattle tried it in 2019, but I don't know how that worked out. The concept is sometimes called "ethnomathematics."

It's lunacy, but if you oppose it a) they say it's not based on Critical Race Theory and b) you're called a racist.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...controversial-push-to-rehumanize-math/2019/10
 
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Most people are not parents of school age children. Even the parents of school age children have little idea what the schools are trying to do to their children. School boards and administrators lie about their intentions and about what's going on in the classroom. It's no wonder people are turning to private schools, charter schools and even home schools to get away from this insanity.
 
JimBob1952 said:
It goes a little deeper than that. It's an attempt by "woke" teachers to infuse into a formerly neutral subject the language of "anti-racism" and other current thinking.

Seattle tried it in 2019, but I don't know how that worked out. The concept is sometimes called "ethnomathematics."

It's lunacy, but if you oppose it a) they say it's not based on Critical Race Theory and b) you're called a racist.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...controversial-push-to-rehumanize-math/2019/10
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As a former mathematic teacher I cannot understand what "anti-racism" language could find its way into a mathematics text. I would like to see examples of the actual offending inclusions, in context.

As for me, I object to the 'woke' description because that term is very ill defined. Mathematics is all about very well defined terms.

I taught junior high maths for years. We taught theory of number and history of number as well as different systems - imperial, decimal, binary and hexadecimal, Roman, Chinese, and Hindu Arabic. Is that being 'woke'?

I could even take the kids outside and show them how our indigenous people were able to measure the height of tall trees, from ground level, without using a tape or trigonometry. How 'woke' is that?

We also showed them how the ancient Egyptians were able to make square corners for the base of a pyramid. None of the above is wokeness. It is enrichment.

Please give me an example of woke mathematics in a child's text book.
 
Warrigal said:
As for me, I object to the 'woke' description because that term is very ill defined
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I've never heard a real person use the term "woke", only read in print online. It always is said to disparage a person or group that have opposing beliefs. It's hard to feel that our society is becoming more mature, rather quite the opposite. There shouldn't be talk of going to Mars, our social mentality is regressing back to the horse and buggy days...
 
Warrigal said:
As a former mathematic teacher I cannot understand what "anti-racism" language could find its way into a mathematics text. I would like to see examples of the actual offending inclusions, in context.



Please give me an example of woke mathematics in a child's text book.
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Hear that? Crickets. There is no example. See what I mean about this having gone too far?

Everything's a conspiracy. Everything is suspect. We all need to go back to first grade and start over using only books that contain no reference to critical race theory or anything woke, not matter how vague.

And science? Oh, my! Let's not believe any of that science cr@p. And while we're banning stuff, let's get rid of Chaucer. And Shakespeare. And throw in Charles Dickens for good measure. :rolleyes:

Let's add music to the mix. No more Bach or Beethoven or Mozart or von Weber. No Telemann. Opera. Blues. Jazz.

It's all part of a vast conspiracy to turn us into characters in The Stepford Wives. Chihuahua!
 
Nathan said:
I've never heard a real person use the term "woke", only read in print online. It always is said to disparage a person or group that have opposing beliefs. It's hard to feel that our society is becoming more mature, rather quite the opposite. There shouldn't be talk of going to Mars, our social mentality is regressing back to the horse and buggy days...
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Before the word 'woke' appeared in popular jargon we had a period when some politicians objected to the way history and social studies texts covered the topic of colonisation of Australia. When we were kids we got the impression that the British did the poor savages a favour by spreading out across the continent with sheep, cattle and advanced technologies. There was never any attempt to help us to see that the Aboriginal experience might have been one of dispossession and suffering.

People who pointed out this disconnect were accused of presenting a "black armband view" of Australian history. The same sort of hue and cry was made about school curricula and it was led by our most senior politician, the PM himself (no names, no pack drill). The media fanned the flames with wild stories about how white children were being made to feel bad about their heritage.

Decades later we are in a very different place. There has been an apology made in Parliament to children who were stolen from their communities and to their children for the emotional pain that continues to sadden their hearts. A handful of parliamentarians left the chamber but the vast majority gave a long standing ovation. The Indigenous people in the gallery and outside on the lawn wept.

Just about every public meeting and most church services now begin with a 'welcome to country' that acknowledges the particular Aboriginal group that continue to be the traditional owners of the land on which we stand because ownership was never ceded by any treaty.

We are now at the point where there is discussion about amending the Constitution to provide a formal voice to the parliament for Indigenous people. It is by no means certain that this will come to pass but in my mind this is progress. It is history moving forward not backwards, and it is certainly not wokeness, whatever that ugly word means.
 
Warrigal said:
People who pointed out this disconnect were accused of presenting a "black armband view" of Australian history. The same sort of hue and cry was made about school curricula and it was led by our most senior politician, the PM himself (no names, no pack drill). The media fanned the flames with wild stories about how white children were being made to feel bad about their heritage.
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Sadly, it appears that the same attitudes are manifest in segments of U.S. society at present.
 
This kind of BS has been discussed privately in churches for many decades now. Having it put out there upon secular society only makes it sound dumb. Sorry.
 
Not to hijack the thread but just to inject a little humor... we left Florida in 2006 and moved to Texas. Now Florida is looking like a crazy state, but we can't say anything because we live in Texas. "Glass houses" and all that! :ROFLMAO:

 
Dallas County, Tx has/had a Citizen's Review Board for school textbooks.
Any citizen could request that he be placed on this board.
(My limited knowledge gained from local newscast: Every person on the review board was insane)

Money, every state spends millions and millions of dollars a year for textbooks, you think their might be those with a vested interest
at work in the decision making process
 
This is from a Washington Times news article (subscription required)..

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, announced Monday that the state Department of Education had rejected 41% of the math textbooks submitted for its K-12 curriculum next year, including 71% of K-5 math textbooks, because they include “references to critical race theory” or “social emotional learning.”

“Reveal Math K-5,” one of several textbooks from McGraw Hill that Florida rejected, encourages students to discuss how they feel about solving problems. Conservatives see the language as a Trojan horse for liberals to revive efforts to “decolonize” mathematics of a perceived bias against multicultural students.

“Every lesson integrates a social and emotional learning objective along with the math and language objectives,” Reveal Math K-5 states on page 52.
 

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