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Comment by 908B64B197 | Hacker News Reader

> Gifted programs are "unacceptably white".

You are only scratching the surface here. Some places had a hard time "proving" their gifted programs were "too white" so they started using the term "white and white-adjacent" to include Asian kids as well (often from impoverished background but that's another issue) in these stats [0].

> I don't see why race has anything to do with it.

Buckle up. The SF school district is trying to include a lot more racial content at school [1]. Now even math is considered racist [2]. I wish I was making this up.

[0] https://www.asian-dawn.com/2020/11/17/school-district-catego...

[1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Sa...

[2] https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11...

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“Math is racist” is not what is being claimed in link #2. It’s math instruction that they claim to be racist. I have no idea if this is true but it’s at least plausible.

The veneer is quite thin.

There are even more radical proposals [0] they are trying to introduce in High School classes.

It's hard not to see the real agenda past the shallow arguments against gifted programs [1]. This was an enlightening read to say the least.

[0] https://criticallyconsciouscomputing.org/

[1] https://unherd.com/2022/02/anti-racism-betrays-asian-student...

What do you mean by the veneer being quite thin? You mean that the surface-level claim that math instruction is racist is actually cover for a deeper claim that math itself is racist? Where do they come close to making that deeper claim?

What's the "radical" concern with [0]? Why wouldn't we want students to think critically about uses of technology and how they impact society, or make access to computer science more inclusive?

If you read it you'll see it contains some gems "This focus on middle and high school, and on adolescents is intentional: 12-18 year olds are at a developmental stage where they are just beginning to comprehend their social worlds and their roles and positions in these social worlds. We believe that learning CS in social terms at these ages can not only help them integrate perspectives on computing into their new awareness of the world, but that the ideas in CS itself can help them better understand what it means to be human, to make decisions, and to have intelligence. Children in primary school may be too young for conversations about systemic social conflict. And while adults in postsecondary and beyond need to learn justice-centered CS literacy as well, many are less open to such learning, having hardened their political views as they enter adulthood. We likely need different methods for children and adults."

They know adults will be skeptical of what they teach (with reason). So they try to jam it down children’s throats where there’s little parental oversight. Disagree with it? Enjoy failing the class and the hit it will have on your GPA for college. And they aren’t even trying to hide it.

What is the sinister material that they’re trying to teach or jam down children’s throats? The fact that they’re preparing material for a specific age range does not seem sinister in itself

You are correct, the general gist is they believe math instruction as racist, although they do at times make reference "Western math" and "Eurocentric math", whatever that is, and not math education, so it's a bit muddled. Regardless, take 15 minutes for yourself and you will see exactly how absurd the entire premise is. Here, on how word problems support white-supremacy:

> Often the emphasis is placed on learning math in the “real world,” as if our classrooms are not a part of the real world. This reinforces notions of either/or thinking because math is only seen as useful when it is in a particular context. However, this can result in using mathematics to uphold capitalist and imperialist ways of being and understandings of the world.

Repeat that for 83 pages. It's utterly surreal.

> this can result in using mathematics to uphold capitalist and imperialist ways of being and understandings of the world.

This explains why soviet mathematicians were (and still are) considered among the best in the world.

I grew up with a diverse group of friends.

The way math is taught is quite often racist. I've seen entire math textbooks based around examples featuring American sports. If you don't know the rules of American football, you are not going to understand any of the examples in the book. I spent a lot of time in school and college explaining various American sports rules to friends.

That is the most trivial of examples, but it is a hugely impactful one for a lot of people. I have seen large amounts of frustration because some math book author couldn't keep his favorite sports jargon from littering the entire book.

You have other biases as well that can make students feel like shit. Story problems about a working father and a stay at home mother, sounds like nothing for many people, but for quite a few kids being reminded again and again that "not having a dad" is unusual, well, why the hell is the math book doing that? Just stick to problems involving trains.

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