A Kentucky school district is promoting anti-racist mathematics

Here’s the gist of the story from The College Fix:

Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky will host a year-long professional training program on anti-racist mathematics.

The program’s goal is to “eliminate curricular violence and innovate mathematics education” through “anti-bias, anti-racist, and racially equitable practices.”

Educators will engage in monthly sessions with Lateefah Id-Deen, assistant professor of mathematics education at Kennesaw State University, which focus on topics like white supremacy in mathematics, racial trauma in mathematics, and creating anti-racist lesson plans.

@jcpsky staff is invited to join our upcoming PD Cohort titled Anti-Racist Mathematics, facilitated by Dr. Lateefah ID-Deen. Register by visiting: https://t.co/4APD3rLuqO @AvenCook @Prof_IdDeenL #jcpsdep pic.twitter.com/gErkuOkWYn

[snip]

Teachers accepted into the program are required to teach four social justice math lessons during the Spring 2022 semester. They are also expected to “plan for wider dissemination of their learning within their schools and the district.

Read more here.

The curriculum gives you some insight into the madness that is about to enter Louisville’s public schools:

August 12, 2021: Anti-Racist Mathematics, Biases, and White Supremacy in Mathematics
September 9, 2021: Classroom Environment, Racial Trauma in Mathematics, The Learner
October 14, 2021: Anti-Racist Mathematics Lesson Planning Frameworks
November 11, 2021: Facilitate Difficult Conversations and Lesson Plan Analysis
December 9, 2021: Let’s Plan Together
January 13, 2022: Lesson Planning with Critical Friends Group
February 16-18, 2022 (Tentative): Site Visits
March 10, 2022: Leading from the Classroom (Part 1)
April 14, 2022: Leading from the Classroom (Part 2)
May 12, 2022: Reflections and Action Items Moving Forward

I would call math racist if the word problems said, “Two Blacks and two Jews are walking through the street. They meet a gang of three Hitler Youth and three KKK members. If the Blacks and Jews are armed with six sticks weighing three ounces each, and the Hitler Youth and KKK are armed with six bats weighing eight ounces each, how long will it take the Hitler Youth and the KKK members to drive the Blacks and Jews out of town?” That’s math wrapped in a layer of racism and White supremacy. Otherwise, no matter your color, religion, sex, or anything else, 2+2 will always equal 4. That is, it will always equal four unless we’ve truly entered Orwell’s world, in which case it equals whatever Big Brother says it equals.

I always wonder if people like Lateefah Id-Deen believe the garbage they’re getting paid to disseminate, or if they’re just con artists with a good gig. When it comes to the White teachers, they’re all hypocrites because they still have jobs. If they believed the Critical Race Theory garbage they voice, they’d give their jobs, their homes, and their savings accounts to Black people or other politically correct minorities.

What these teachers do like is an excuse for the fact that they’re lousy teachers. If they were good teachers, they wouldn’t be punishing the children in their care (many of whom are Black, since Louisville’s population is 23.6% Black, which is almost double the average Black population across America) by informing them that math is inherently racist and that it is offensive to them to have to learn a White person’s way of thinking.

There is nothing inherent in Blacks that prevents them from learning math — provided that math is taught intelligently. If it were up to me, I’d teach math using the techniques Maria Montessori developed more than 100 years ago in the slums of Rome. Unlike modern pedagogues, Montessori didn’t go into those classrooms with socioeconomic theories and foist them on innocent, defenseless children. Instead, she looked at how children learn and came up with approaches that make math understandable and accessible.

We can do at least that much for American children, regardless of their color. We would also do well to remember that, in China, they’re not concerned about math’s “race.” They’re concerned about churning out endless numbers of highly accomplished STEM students.