Does anyone truly believe
this crap, or do people spout this stuff just to get a rise out of people like me, or perhaps to flaunt their liberal/progressive
bona fides?
The National Science Foundation is spending over $1 million to train two-dozen "social justice" math teachers in Philadelphia.
The Drexel University project will promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) high school curriculums (sic) that are "steeped in the context of social justice."
Know what
I'd like? A curriculum steeped in the context of
excelling at math.
"Inquiry-based instruction supports this approach as it
opens communication among students by establishing a learning community
of shared knowledge and experience," the grant states. "Seminars
related to mindfulness and developing emotional intelligence will
augment the Scholars' coursework. The latter will be scaffolded to
develop the following behaviors: professionalism, growth mindset,
commitment to serving all students well, and cultural competency."
Inquiry-based education takes quite a bit of time. Good luck teaching everything that needs to be taught in a course. As for everything else in that paragraph--learning community, developing emotional intelligence, scaffolding, cultural competency--complete and total crap. It just is. And I'm not going to pretend otherwise just because it's popular to do so, or because it would hurt someone's feelings if I don't. Reality doesn't care about your feelings.
I read a couple years ago about some African Americans sending their kids to Africa for school. Here's a WaPo article about Africans in the US sending their kids back to Africa: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/to-some-africans-in-us-childrens-education-is-best-left-to-the-homeland/2012/07/16/gJQAfSAfpW_story.html?utm_term=.8d1ec7e2cc68
ReplyDelete>> Sending children back to be educated in their parents’ country of origin “is not just happening among Nigerian immigrants in the United States,” John Arthur, the director of African and African American studies at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, says in an e-mail. “Despite the stereotypical media portrayal of Africa and anything associated with Africa as underdeveloped, the region has some of the best educational systems in the world. These prep and public schools emphasize STEM courses,” or classes focusing on science, technology, engineering and math.
>>Arthur says the quality of Africa’s education system is seen in the number of Africans who pursue postgraduate degrees at esteemed universities around the world.<<
The racism in the Drexel/NSF program displays a blindered and parochial view of the world, which never looks beyond their own insane SJW class.
Inquiry-based instruction assumes that the students have enough knowledge about the topic to open a discussion. Mere "shared knowledge and experience" is going to happen in a math course? Or even an English literature course?
ReplyDeleteThis is a "everybody's truth is valid!" approach -- and that's a great way to learn to do math, especially since we all know that math is white patriarchal privilege and needs to more inclusive and stuff.
Just today, the long term sub for one of our teachers who is out on maternity leave mentioned an incident from his first week. He was approaching a door and opened it, but then saw a woman heading to the door with a large backpack and a couple of bags, so he held the door. Here's how it went.
ReplyDeleteHer: Go ahead
Him: No that's okay, you can go first (he's holding the door open-it has a lock that requires a keycard)
Her: No, YOU go first.
Him: Really ,it's okay, I'm not in a hurry.
Her" YOU holding the door demonstrates YOU holding power over me.
Him: Huh?
This guy is in his mid 50's and has traveled and worked in places in Asia and Africa and Europe and he said he has never ever encountered this kind of hostility toward a basic mannerly act.
I appreciate it when someone holds a door open for me. About the last thing I'd do is attack someone for what amounts to doing me a favor.
ReplyDeleteIn physics (my content area),the College Board revamped the AP Physics B exam (which was too "content driven") into the crap that AP Physics 1 and 2 has become (using "inquiry based thinking to solve the problems") and scores have plummeted drastically where over 60% of the students failed to score a 3 or higher. (Before, 60% scored a 3 or better according to your physics teacher colleague's blog.) What's that old adage about "mind the sick and leave well alone"? In their attempt to be more inclusive and in the spirit of "everyone is a scientist / scholar / 18th place trophy winner at heart", they changed around a perfectly good exam and now colleges are considering not accepting those scores. Good for colleges standing up to this artificial social engineering crap.
ReplyDeletehttp://phyzblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/why-i-no-longer-recommend-ap-physics.html