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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

I can understand rejecting them for "failed to meet curriculum standards", but what does "incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies" really mean? Are there math topics and "stategies" that are illegal in the US/Florida somehow?

I also understand that including critical race theory in math books seems wildly irrelevant (unless I miss something) and therefor not fit for the curriculum. But I'm interested to hear how that happens in the first place? Who includes education about "intersection of race, society, and law" in mathematical books, for what purpose? Shouldn't that belong to some other educational program instead, like society or history classes?

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I could imagine it being something along the lines of "The economic productivity of a typical black slave was X... yada yada yada... how many dollars in reparations does America owe modern black Americans Y years later at interest rate Z."

I could also imagine it being something much more benign. I really wish we could see what it actually was so we could see if the DoE's judgement here was reasonable or not.

> I could imagine it being something along the lines of "The economic productivity of a typical black slave was X... yada yada yada... how many dollars in reparations does America owe modern black Americans Y years later at interest rate Z."

That does seems a bit unnecessary example since there is high racial tensions and the book is supposed to be about math. You could just use another example in that case. If it was about cases like that, I might just agree with them being rejected.

> I really wish we could see what it actually was so we could see if the DoE's judgement here was reasonable or not.

Agree, seems weird to not show people what the problem was if it's easy to justify. But then again, a lot of judicial, government and politics from America seems weird to me so...

> I could imagine it being something along the lines of

It would be so nice if politicians could show us precisely what they're protecting our children from, so we wouldn't need to rely on HideousKojima's imagination for examples.

>so we wouldn't need to rely on HideousKojima's imagination for examples

I don't get it. What's so remarkable about "HideousKojima" (Hideo Kojima?)'s games?

"HideousKojima" is just the HN username of the person who wrote the above possible example of what could be in the book

https://www.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/public/socialstudi...

Thank you for this link. I was wondering when someone was going to present some concrete evidence for the "social justice" creep into mathematics curriculum that some people object to.

Turns out your were not that far off

https://dailycaller.com/2022/04/21/desantis-examples-critica...

A couple years ago including "intersection of race, society, and law" in math books was the hot new thing (a lot of "black people can't empathize with the names in the math book" etc.) Articles about it even showed up here IIRC.

Unsolicited strategies are "core math". I am convinced 98% of the books are banned because of this but they tossed in CRT to get peoples' wallets out for political donations.

Title may as well have been "dear leader protects children".

Topics like sampling bias and adverse impact seem like they could fit that intersection between a math curriculum and "race, society, and law."

> Who includes education about "intersection of race, society, and law" in mathematical books, for what purpose?

That's the thing, they don't. And this is all a farce to line the pockets of some publisher in bed with some lawmakers.

I understand we don't have any evidence supporting Florida's claim, but you don't have any evidence supporting what you said either. I'm inclined to believe Florida until shown otherwise.

I'm inclined to believe Florida until shown otherwise.

You don't need to pick a side. You're allowed to say you don't know.

Sure, but I am choosing to (loosely) pick a side. The only evidence we have is their claim, and I'll believe it unless better evidence comes to light against it.

>I'm inclined to believe Florida until shown otherwise.

That Florida made the active decision to not release the names of the books is a bit strange, don't you think?

Seems like an open government would want to provide their citizens with the details of their decisions instead of hiding it.

It is a bit strange. But it could be something as simple as a provision in the contract with the publishers that they not release info on any textbooks that are rejected.

It's open information that has been released in the past by many states, including Florida. They released a list of the books this morning but not the reasons why they got rejected so it was a choice to not give the information out at the same time as the notice.

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