Teachers, activists push school districts to drop calculus in the name of equity – IOTW Report

Teachers, activists push school districts to drop calculus in the name of equity

Tuesday, 14 March 2023, 11:45 MJA Uncategorized 53

DC:

Teachers and activists are pushing for high schools to drop their calculus courses to increase equity as many minority and low-income students don’t have access to the class, according to The 74, a nonprofit news organization covering education.

In the 2017-2018 school year, 76% of schools with “low student of color enrollment” offered calculus while 52% of schools with a high proportion of students of color offered the advanced math course, according to a Learning Policy Institute report. The course, teachers and activists argued, is disproportionately offered to students not of an underrepresented group, giving other students an advantage in the college admissions process, according to The 74.

“I am rightfully worried that the disproportionate focus on calculus is unfairly excluding students, particularly students who come from backgrounds that have been historically excluded — and are still being excluded — from STEM majors and the well-paying careers that can follow,” Sarah Spence Adams, professor of mathematics at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts, told the outlet. more

53 Comments on Teachers, activists push school districts to drop calculus in the name of equity

  4. Are algebra and geometry next? I am not a math whiz but even I know that dumbing down our math skills by eliminating calculus in the name of equity will not end well. Maf is hard and so is learning proper English and real American and world history, but it still needs to be learned and properly taught and not dumbed down to the lowest comment denominator in the name of fairness and equity. When everyone is equal how will that be fair to people who are smarter or more talented than all the dummies that have been created to make everyone equal? If we keep going on down this endless road to stupidity and ignorance all we will have left are stupid and ignorant people who will easily be conquered by anyone like the chinks or worse who haven’t abandoned traditional quality education standards. Equity does not equal equality, it never has and never will be. Equity has become another worthless and meaningless devil word to gain control of people for evil and totalitarian purposes.

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  5. What difference does it really make, the minority students do not need to attend class anyway, the teachers will pass them regardless of attendance. And after graduation, they can get into any college they want, with many on scholarships, because of their “minority” status. And the cycle repeats itself, these students will get nice shiny degrees regardless of grades or achievements. Then, on to the workforce where corporations use them to fill their race quotas, or they become doctors or pilots where the standards have been eliminated precisely to allow these folks a credential.

    No society can exist or be sustained when meritocracy is sacrificed at the altar of woke for a bullshit concept they are labeling as “equity”.

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  6. Regarding Equity, aka equal outcomes:
    Flipping through tv channels I come across a kid saying, “It’s not fair
    that you get more!”
    Another kid responds, “Fair isn’t equal outcomes. Fair is everyone
    getting what they deserve.”
    Then I find it was part of a sitcom, but still…. They have this young Sheldon character as apparently smarter than every adult progressive useful idiot.

    4

  7. I’m an engineer. I didn’t take calculus in HS. It wasn’t offered. I was competing in class with others who’d taken it in HS. I struggled mightily to keep up and had to work my ass off and still never really caught up until way late.

    I guess we’ll just have to outsource our engineering and science to China.

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  8. What’s depicted on the front page graphic is 8th grade Algebra (which, of course needs mastering before one studies Calculus).

    Also, it’s been my experience in the last 30 years that the kids that take AP Calculus in high school don’t learn it very well. When I was in HS, there was no such offering and we did fine later with college courses. If I were advising kids today, I would say MASTER all the math you can that’s a prerequisite before college and take it then. If your HS actually has a first-class program and you’re in that top 10% that love mathematics, start it then.

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  13. The degrees that are most coveted; Women’s Studies, African America Studies, Cannabis Cultivation, Critical Race Theory, and Gender Affirmation, none of these rely on math. Math is racist, what’s wrong with you?

    7

  15. I don’t like the inflection point in your tone of voice, Uncle Al. And some days you’re at a maxima, some days at a minima. You seem to have some extremal problems!

    3

  18. The excuse: “…many minority and low-income students don’t have access to the class…”

    Bullshit. They couldn’t pass the prerequisite courses to even get to calculus, so the “inner city” schools dropped it from the curriculum. If a bright person of color showed a high level of math proficiency, he would be taunted by classmates as “trying to be white”. If he overcame that, the school would most likely have made som concession to get him or her into a calculus class.

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  23. If you ever wondered how
    Athens dimmed after Pericles, or almighty Rome fell, or how Constantinople’s walls were breached by hordes of primitive losers…
    …. they were all ‘inside jobs’, internecine damage, self-inflicted.

    9

  25. Brad, most days the majority of the public I see is fat and ugly, with a unicorn fart palette of hair color, sometimes pink.

    I say ugly without hesitation because their clothes are soiled, immodest, don’t fit, and are more suitable for couch potato-ing away from the public.

    5

  26. Oh and don’t forget the hundred$ spent on pointless tats that they can’t afford except that Uncle Joe Shitpants’s EBT cc pays for what keeps these parasites metabolizing.

    4

  27. Real Reason:

    Teachers do not want their Stupidity Exposed to the Public so they Jumped on board with the Maff is Rassis.
    Some Boards were trying to have teachers prove their competency up here in Canuckistan to maintain their license by actual testing. You could imagine the Outrage by the useless UNIONS.

    11

  28. When we talk about “mathematics” in America, we say “math.”

    Did you ever notice that Europeans (and notably Brit’s) say “maths?”

    I hate that. Yes, “Mathematics,” as a whole is multi-faceted and thus sounds plural. But it’s also a “thing” – singular, thus “math” from the word “mathematic.”

    I don’t think I like Europeans any more. They can take there “maths” and stuff ’em.

    2

  30. Pretty soon all that will be required is to color inside the lines–unless you find that oppressive. Then you can just scribble all over the page and call it a dissertation.

    7

  31. So if the class isn’t offered anymore, then NOBODY will have “access to the class”, and that will become the new excuse why HS students of ALL colors and Economic levels don’t go into STEM. You can’t make this shit up !!

    7

  35. “Teachers do not want their Stupidity Exposed to the Public”

    When I was in my early twenties I was lead programmer at a pretty good sized machine shop in the Bay Area. They hired one of my old high school math teachers. Back then we didn’t have the CAD/Cam systems we have today and you had to do a lot of trig. The guy was a miserable failure. He lasted about two weeks.
    And then they interviewed some guy from New York and the guy showed up with clear platform shoes with gold fish in the heels. LOL. I bet BFH had a pair. LOL. Dang, I’m old.

    6

  40. …they DO realize that it was once ILLEGAL in this country to teach reading, writing, and ciphering to Black slaves, don’t they?

    …to make it harder for them to survive if they ran away.

    ht tps://www.history.com/news/nat-turner-rebellion-literacy-slavery

    …brought to you, then, by Democrats.

    Brought to you, NOW, by Democrats.

    …guess that’s why they want to erase hustory too.

    To make it harder for most people to not only not realize that we’ve been here before, but WHY, and that IT’S THE SAME PEOPLE REPEATING THE SAME EVIL…

    5

  43. I like to blame the teachers and the teachers Union as much as the next guy, but so many of these kids are showing up at school totally unprepared to be in a learning environment. John Stanford, for a short time (cancer took him early) was the Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools. He was a black man and a genuine leader. Anyway, when he came to Seattle he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “Give me a child that has had dinner, a decent night sleep, breakfast, and a desire to learn, and we can teach that child and prepare them for their future” we need more thinking like that, and we need children showing up to school ready to learn.

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  47. Well, in my little corner of the world I see a ton of white kids that couldn’t give you change for a dollar if you handed them .50 cents. I’ve hired a lot of entry level floor sweepers in my shop, and I’ve traditionally thrown a little responsibility their way that requires a little “Shop Math”. You immediately get the deer in the headlights look. After you sit down with them and explain what and why you are trying to solve the problem the lights go on. Which is the problem I have with the process they use to teach. Suddenly Mr. Entry Level is smarter than the dumb ass teacher that tried to educate them when they were in school. The Japanese are really good at teaching high level math and they use a process that backs into the equation. Having said all that you still need willing participants.

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  49. Keep em dumb.
    Make them proud of their stupidity.
    Form them into Mongrol hordes.
    Turn them loose on society.
    All they need to know is: “Yes, Massah!” and how to work the EBT card.

    mortem tyrannis
    izlamo delenda est …

    3

  51. They didn’t have access to calculus because they did not take college level algebra and pre-calculus, most likely.

    There are on-line pre-calculus courses that are free and give college credit that is transferable – see Arizona State.

    Without pre-calc, an average student will flame out quickly in calculus. I speak from personal experience.

  52. ^^^ “…Pretty soon all that will be required is to color inside the lines–unless you find that oppressive.”
    already here.
    just make sure to completely fill in the box/bubble, and don’t use a sharpie

    this is the second generation of common core
    the taught are now the teachers
    that’s how they do these things
    always have

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