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by Phyllis Schlafly
Even as numerous other countries outperform American students in math,
trendy educators have begun incorporating theories of social justice and
ethnic studies into math instruction. No longer content to disparage
drills of math facts, the “critical theorists” now in the ascendancy use
math textbooks as a tool to advance a political agenda.
A new text, Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the
Numbers, covers such topics as “Sweatshop Accounting,” “Chicanos Have
Math in Their Blood,” “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.
‘Ethnomathematics’
As explained by New York University education historian Diane Ravitch, “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…is the property of Western Civilization
and is inexorably linked with the values of the oppressors and the
conquerors.” (Wall Street Journal, 6-20-05)
“Ethnomathematics seems to have spawned directly from the minds of
America's ‘bash white males’ contingent,” writes African-American
columnist Gregory Kane, quoting with approval Maryland Gov. Robert L.
Ehrlich Jr.’s blunt comment, “Once you get into this multicultural crap,
this bunk that some folks are teaching in our college campuses and in
other places, you run into a problem.” (Baltimore Sun, 6-2-05)
See Education Reporter, Feb. 2005, for
coverage of the “anti-racist multicultural math” controversy in Newton,
Mass., as well as international comparisons of math achievement.
Ethnomathematics appears to hold little appeal for Asian or
Asian-American students, whose math test scores regularly outclass those
of other ethnic groups. At Quincy High School in Massachusetts, the
school population is 22% Asian while the math club is 94.4% Asian, many
of whom arrived with no English-language skills. “Math is a universal
language,” notes math department head Evelyn Ryan. (New York Times,
5-18-05)
Latest test results
While ethnomathematics sounds like a bad joke, the lagging achievement
of American students in math and science is no laughing matter as
employers increasingly draw from a global workforce. In an AP-AOL News
poll released in August, almost four in ten Americans surveyed said they
hated math in school - double the number who hated any other subject.
2005 ACT scores indicated that only 41% of the test-takers (who aspire
to go to college) are likely to succeed in a college math course.
On the bright side, the latest NAEP math test scores for 9-year-olds are
the highest since the math test was first given in 1973, mirroring the
results of the reading test. Likewise with math scores for 13-year-olds,
but 17-year-olds have made no progress in three decades.
Wanted: math/science grads
A national business coalition in late July announced a goal of doubling
the number of American graduates in math, science, technology and
engineering in the next decade. Headed by Business Roundtable, the group
called the decline in the number of U.S. students pursuing higher
education in those subjects “a national problem that demands national
leadership.”
Microsoft, Intel and IBM have established operations in China and India,
each of which countries graduates many more engineers than the U.S. “There’s no doubt that if we had easier hiring here in the U.S., we
would be doing more in the U.S. and less outside the U.S.,” insists
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. (Wall Street Journal, 5-5-04)
Better career paths needed?
However, if America really wants more engineers, maybe would-be
employers need to develop better career paths for engineers. Stanford
University scientist Christopher R. Moylan perceives no surplus of
engineering jobs in Silicon Valley. In a letter to the editor to the San
Jose Mercury News, he asked, “Why should my students major in a field
where they will be stuck in a cubicle, only to be laid off every four
years, while the folks from marketing are off playing golf with
customers?” (4-4-05)
“Given the time and effort of becoming an engineer, who wants to be
unemployed every few years?” asked engineering manager James Finkel in a
letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal (5-11-05). “Because
engineering salaries barely keep track with inflation, why choose your
lifetime salary the day you graduate from college? One college classmate
of mine with a master’s degree was featured in a New York Times article
as making just $45,000 after 20 years. By the way, he was being laid off.”
Princeton University engineering dean Maria Klawe told Gates in a July
international faculty forum that most students she talks to fear
computer science would doom them to isolating workdays fraught with
boredom, doing nothing but writing reams of code. (Associated Press,
7-19-05)
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