University Math Professor Suggests We Should Quit Teaching Because It Perpetuates White Privilege

They were in my high school if you planned on going to college. Think maybe the kids that took business didn't have to take those classes...but I'm not sure about that.

I even had to take trigonometry.

I took algebra 1 in 8th grade, geometry in 9th, algebra 2 in 10th, trig in 11th and Calculus in 12th.

How could you possibly take the SAT or ACT without algebra or geometry..not to mention the other ones??

 

No, that's true....like I said it wasn't required for the business students...there was another catagory but I'm can't remember...maybe technical?

Anyway, it's being taught differently now in the HS my grandson will start in sept. It's just math but it incorporates all the different ones.

So, he'll get a little of everything....not just a year of algebra etc.

 

Same here. Students could take General Math I their freshman year and General Math II their sophomore year.

I was tutoring a student in Algebra I 2 years ago. He didn’t even know his multiplication facts. He was

counting on his fingers. I asked him why in the world was he taking algebra instead of general math.

He told me that all students were required to take algebra I their freshman year,

not just prealgebra, but algebra I.

There are some students who are just never going to be able to pass algebra, well maybe with a D if they have a tutor.

So if they are talented in art or music, and want to study that in college, they will have a hard time of it.


I don’t think these subjects (algebra and geometry) should be required to get a school diploma.

The math professor in question was just pointing out that more black students are not ready for these

subjects when they reach 9th grade, not because they are not smart enough, but because many of them go

to schools that have not prepared them. Of course, there are some extremely intelligent black kids who will

sail through algebra and geometry in spite of their inferior grade schools.

 

Greetings @Maisie Morton!
The stat that I gave on an earlier post was a national average. Nearly 40% of the African American community of children are functionally illiterate at the 4th grade level. Granted, math is just one of the subjects and reading and the ability to write are probably the majors when then kids are tested, but still, conceptual math normally doesn't occur until the later grades and the earlier grades are nothing more than memory exercises.
Perhaps the nuance of the "common core" technique is causing the interruption but that would be across the board among all the races.

No, when I try to reason through the whole debacle and whether the good professor said it properly or not, I cannot logically accept that there is such a stretch in mental acuity among the races. That said, it is also hard to believe that the Raven's Matrices Test was initially developed for black students replacing the normal IQ tests that can be given to all children. The mental ability for Spatial coordination versus logic and reasoning. Hard to figure.

 

ha ha ha ha ha !!!!

 

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I didn’t question the mental acquity between the races.

I was talking about the inferior education that many black children get who live in inner cities.

 

Yes, I realize that the inner cities probably have a higher number of children per class and the teachers are also hard stressed to teach or the cities are hard pressed to find good teachers. But, are there not Caucasians, Asians, and Latinos going to those same schools and classes?

All I am really trying to ascertain here is why the professor is focusing on black education versus others. What I am getting out of it is she is saying that if an equal number of Black children and Caucasian children are taught the same course in math, the Caucasians stand a better chance of excelling.

 

Yes, I realize that the inner cities probably have a higher number of children per class and the teachers are also hard stressed to teach or the cities are hard pressed to find good teachers. But, are there not Caucasians, Asians, and Latinos going to those same schools and classes?

All I am really trying to ascertain here is why the professor is focusing on black education versus others. What I am getting out of it is she is saying that if an equal number of Black children and Caucasian children are taught the same course in math, the Caucasians stand a better chance of excelling.

 

I've avoided the conversation until now. This professor is NOT a math professor, but rather a liberal arts professor... doing what liberal arts professor do. Which is justifying a job that would not exist otherwise. Which is give lectures (usually elective) and write books for a salary and tenure.

Her main complaint and justifiably so, is that most math classes are taught from the perspective that physics, etc. were invented by the greeks (westerners) and no significance is attached to Mayan, Indian, Chinese, African, Arabic, etc. contributions. The Greeks through conquests, etc. accumulated the teachings of many cultures. So why aren't those contributions acknowledged? Because that would require teaching the history of math, physics, etc., which is NOT the same as teaching math.

 

@Maisie Morton
Almost a year of membership, little has moved you to write until now. I, too, taught Math, but not as a career teacher, and not with the teaching credentials usually required. The little rural school district we had mo ed into had suddenly lost it's high school math teacher of 15years. The Principal, having heard via neighborhood gossip that I had a degree in Engineering, implored me to fill the job opening. (how long might a district wait to hire a math teacher in an area having 21 citizens per sq. mi.?)

We desperately needed the dough, I took the job, as usual employing my less than usually-correct approaches, found the experience exhilirating (I had never taught before), exhausting, and rewarding. I taught 5-1/2 hours of classes daily, above the average 4-1/2. Algebra I, II, Plane Geometry, Trigonometry, General Math I, and II. Second semester the seniors got Calculus I.

It had been decades since I studied these things, but they came back easily. After all, I had used many of the concepts over the years in my work. The State of Missouri cast a shadow on it all, requesting that I obtain accreditation via 20 hours of teachers ed., never enforced it, and Bunker School District IIA asked me for a second year. I
Frank declined.

 

@Ken Anderson
Algebra, Geometry, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Trigonometry, were reserved for those students proficiencying in Science via the 8th. grade Occupational Testing.

They stuck me with them all, based on my testing preferences. My druthers woukd have negated Biology only.
Frank