Everyone in education has seen this supposedly brilliant meme about the difference between equity and equality:
Many electrons have died in rebuttal to this silliness (here's a fun one), but the end result of those currently pushing the equityequityequity line is, in reality, more like this:
Oh, does that picture offend you? Does it give your heart a boo-boo? Try this:
California's Department of Education is working on a new framework for K-12 mathematics that discourages gifted students from enrolling in accelerated classes that study advanced concepts like calculus.
The draft of the framework is hundreds of pages long and covers a wide range of topics. But its overriding concern is inequity. The department is worried that too many students are sorted into different math tracks based on their natural abilities, which leads some to take calculus by their senior year of high school while others don't make it past basic algebra. The department's solution is to prohibit any sorting until high school, keeping gifted kids in the same classrooms as their less mathematically inclined peers until at least grade nine.
"The inequity of mathematics tracking in California can be undone through a coordinated approach in grades 6–12," reads a January 2021 draft of the framework. "In summary, middle-school students are best served in heterogeneous classes."
In fact, the framework concludes that calculus is overvalued, even for gifted students.
"The push to calculus in grade twelve is itself misguided," says the framework.
In the spirit of the cartoons above: no one gets to see over the fence.
Instead of actually teaching math, doing the hard work of actually teaching elementary math--addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, including decimals, fractions and percents--we'll just do so-called social justice instead, because that's easier.
The K-12 system should concern itself with making every kid fall in love with math.
Broadly speaking, this entails making math as easy and un-math-like as possible. Math is really about language and culture and social justice, and no one is naturally better at it than anyone else, according to the framework.
The kindest thing you can say about such people is that they're idiots. That's nicer, but probably less accurate, than saying they're intentionally destructive, and are using their power over other people's children to push their hatred.
I agree with the closing, and marvel that my own district has increased the math requirement for high school graduation so that our standards look good when compared to those of nearby districts:
If California adopts this framework, which is currently under public review, the state will end up sabotaging its brightest students. The government should let kids opt out of math if it's not for them. Don't let the false idea that there's no such thing as a gifted student herald the end of advanced math entirely.
8 comments:
There is no more Oak oppression, they passed a noble law, and the trees are all kept equal by hatched axe and saw
Rush: The Trees
Learning calculus is fundamental to learning how to think....how to reson. Calculus gives insight into how our dynamical world actual functions in reality. It provides a lot of moments of, "Ah hah!....NOW I understand!"
To prevent our students from learning calculus is simply a social capital crime. People who push for this are clearly demonstrating their extraordinary ignorance......or perhaps there is a far more sinister reason.
Anonymous, I agree with your idea of allowing, helping students gain as much math mastery as they can, as fast as they can.
I disagree with your idea about calculus, probably because I never figured how I passed 3 semesters of it in college, nor in my area of chemistry, formulations, I don't miss it. (statistics YES).
I also think of two of my closest co-workers, one in shipping, one in purchasing. None of us could do the other's job. Yet, strategic thinking is vital to both of them. (I'm glad I don't have to deal with their people problems)
I was first exposed to this meme five years ago, three years before I finally escaped (retired). At the time, the administrator running this particular training didn't like it when I pointed out that the tallest child never achieved his potential under the equity based ponaradigm. He also didn't like it when I asked "If I have two students with IEP's who are equally challenged, but one is a minority and one is not, which one should get more personal attention?" The administrator (a former coach who is now a secondary level principal) told me that due to the lack of support in the minority child's life, I should help him more. I live in an area where such a child is just as likely to be the offspring of a professional athlete or CEO as a single Mom. I'm also the parent of a son who experienced many challenges due to severe dyslexia. If this policy was already being enacted under his time in school, it explains so much.
Anonymous (above poster):
Embrace the power of AND... ignorance and sinister reasons.
I’m not that concerned about the specific topic of calculus in high school - plenty of people, including me, did just fine encountering calc I/II/III for the first time in college. I ended up with two semesters of PDEs and one of calculus of variations as an undergraduate, and had nothing higher than trig in high school.
That said…taken as a whole, this is as loony a policy as I’ve ever seen in more than 20 years living in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia. Our betters have decided to use Harrison Bergeron as an instruction manual. Here’s hoping the gubernatorial recall election candidates of what is normally the Stupid Party will embrace the anti-CRT, anti-Woke positions and clearly show and campaign on what Governor Gruesome and his cronies and lickspittles have in store for us.
I attended high school in the UK, back when it had a merit-based system. Some of us started calculus in 9th grade, most didn't.
I'll just leave this here with the Title: California Today
https://vimeo.com/338490074
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