School vouchers anyone?

[Duncan]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006873

Ethnomathematics

Even math education is being politicized.

BY DIANE RAVITCH

Sunday, June 26, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

It seems our math educators no longer believe in the beauty and power of the principles of mathematics. They are continually in search of a fix that will make it easy, relevant, fun and even politically relevant. In the early 1990s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued standards that disparaged basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, since all of these could be easily performed on a calculator. The council preferred real-life problem solving, using everyday situations. Attempts to solve problems without basic skills caused some critics, especially professional mathematicians, to deride the "new, new math" as "rainforest algebra."

In a comparison of a 1973 algebra textbook and a 1998 "contemporary mathematics" textbook, Williamson Evers and Paul Clopton found a dramatic change in topics. In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions and functions. In the 1998 book, the index listed families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises and fund-raising carnival.

Those were the days of innocent dumbing-down. Now mathematics is being nudged into a specifically political direction by educators who call themselves "critical theorists." They advocate using mathematics as a tool to advance social justice. Social justice math relies on political and cultural relevance to guide math instruction. One of its precepts is "ethnomathematics," that is, the belief that different cultures have evolved different ways of using mathematics, and that students will learn best if taught in the ways that relate to their ancestral culture. From this perspective, traditional mathematics--the mathematics taught in universities around the world--is the property of Western civilization and is inexorably linked with the values of the oppressors and conquerors. The culturally attuned teacher will learn about the counting system of the ancient Mayans, ancient Africans, Papua New Guineans and other "nonmainstream" cultures.

Partisans of social-justice mathematics advocate an explicitly political agenda in the classroom. A new textbook, "Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers," shows how problem solving, ethnomathematics and political action can be merged. Among its topics are: "Sweatshop Accounting," with units on poverty, globalization and the unequal distribution of wealth. Another topic, drawn directly from ethnomathematics, is "Chicanos Have Math in Their Blood." Others include "The Transnational Capital Auction," "Multicultural Math," and "Home Buying While Brown or Black." Units of study include racial profiling, the war in Iraq, corporate control of the media and environmental racism. The theory behind the book is that "teaching math in a neutral manner is not possible." Teachers are supposed to vary the teaching of mathematics in relation to their students' race, sex, ethnicity and community.

This fusion of political correctness and relevance may be the next big thing to rock mathematics education, appealing as it does to political activists and to ethnic chauvinists.

It seems terribly old-fashioned to point out that the countries that regularly beat our students in international tests of mathematics do not use the subject to steer students into political action. They teach them instead that mathematics is a universal language that is as relevant and meaningful in Tokyo as it is in Paris, Nairobi and Chicago. The students who learn this universal language well will be the builders and shapers of technology in the 21st century. The students in American classes who fall prey to the political designs of their teachers and professors will not.

Ms. Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the Koret Task Force at the Hoover Institution

[Prosperity]

In a comparison of a 1973 algebra textbook and a 1998 "contemporary mathematics" textbook, Williamson Evers and Paul Clopton found a dramatic change in topics. In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions and functions. In the 1998 book, the index listed families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises and fund-raising carnival.

I am not sure it is fair to compare an algebra book with a contemporary math book. I think the latter is a book focused on just practical effects. I seriously doubt Algebra is being replaced by whatever this contemporary mathmatics thing is. Not a very good aricle IMO

[Destino]

Originally posted by Liberty

I am not sure it is fair to compare an algebra book with a contemporary math book. I think the latter is a book focused on just practical effects. I seriously doubt Algebra is being replaced by whatever this contemporary mathmatics thing is. Not a very good aricle IMO

That's the first thing that came to my mind as well. They are comparing apples to porches, as Kilmer likes to say.

[Duncan]

"In the early 1990s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued standards that disparaged basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, since all of these could be easily performed on a calculator."

[jpillian]

Now, if the contemporary math book is replacing the algebra book -- especially on a wide scale? Yes, that would make me a bit edgy.

Unless I missed something, I don't think the author made that point.

It's always morbidly interesting to hear what whacked up text books are being written, though.

And to summarize .. what Liberty and Destino said

[Destino]

Originally posted by Duncan

"In the early 1990s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued standards that disparaged basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, since all of these could be easily performed on a calculator."

That's a great statement but what's it based on? What exactly did they do that "disparaged" those basic skills.

[Ignatius J.]

yeah, basically a worthless article. You can tell because there isn't a decent fact in it, and no real statements are made.

Kind of a joke.

Now, are there problems with how we teach math? absolutely, but this looks more like a PAC hatchet job.

[Ancalagon the Black]

Originally posted by Duncan

"In the early 1990s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued standards that disparaged basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, since all of these could be easily performed on a calculator."

There was a representative from the NCTM who was interviewed on the Post the other day. I'll try to dig up the link, but they were clear that statements such as the above are outright lies.

[twa]

The math they teach here is Definately not dumbed down. In fact I would say they are well above the levels taught when I was in school.

[Thiebear]

Just a personal note: My kid is learning math before she can read half her words.... at age 6...

She can do simple addition and subtraction in Kindergarten...

Some of her homework I thought was mind boggling for her age...

[twa]

Some of my kids math homework is mind boggling for MY age..,,,,even my wife has trouble with some of the college level work they bring home.

It looks like chinese to me :laugh: