Nolte: Seattle Public Schools Seek to Expose ‘Oppressive Mathematical Practices’

The Seattle public schools have created a framework to protect children from racist and “oppressive mathematical practices.”

A document made public by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction includes the findings of an “Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee [which] was created by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) as mandated by the 2019 Legislature (SB 5023) to identify and make available ethnic studies materials and resources for use in grades seven through twelve.”

Included in this report is the “Seattle Public Schools Math ES [Ethnic Studies] Framework” that is so woke it devolves into gibberish. In no particular order, here are some of the highlights:

• What is my mathematical identity?
• How important is it to be Right? What is Right? Says Who?
• What does it mean to make a mistake? In the classroom? In my home? In my community?
• How do we derive mathematical truth?
• Who holds power in a mathematical classroom?
• Is there a place for power and authority in a math classroom?
• Who gets to say if the answer is right?
• Who is Smart? Who is not Smart?
• Can you recognize and name oppressive mathematical practices in your experience?
• Why/how does data-driven processes prevent liberation?
• How is math manipulated to allow inequality and oppression to exist?
• Who is doing the oppression?
• Who does the oppression protect?
• [E]xplain how math and technology and/or science are connected and how technology and/or science have been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color
• Power and oppression, as defined by ethnic studies, are the ways in which individuals and groups define mathematical knowledge so as to see “Western” mathematics as the only legitimate expression of mathematical identity and intelligence. This definition of legitimacy is then used to disenfranchise people and communities of color. This erases the historical contributions of people and communities of color.

And my personal favorite:

• How can we change mathematics from individualistic to collectivist thinking?

Here’s my own question:

• How is placing your child in a public school these days not child abuse?

Instead of teaching children a valuable skill — you know, like math — the public schools are using math (of all things) as just one more gateway drug into the destructive addiction of victimization that is meant to ensure these kids all grow up frustrated, demoralized, and stupid. But of course, that is the goal. If kids just learned how to read, write, add, and subtract, they might have a chance of making it on their own in the big, bad world. But our public schools are no longer interested in that, so they use this propaganda to create a whole generation of thumb-sucking morons desperate for the government to take care of them forever. After all, that is how you control a population — keep them ignorant and dependent.

Twisting math into a subjective thing, removing the beauty of its objective truths, is quite a feat, and shame on the parents forever who put up with this.

 

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