Math Equity

[Loren Pechtel]

While I can see merit to showing work in my experience it was only done by lazy teachers wanting to ensure you didn't just copy the answer.

The worst I had was a physics teacher who insisted the class couldn't be properly taught in the summer session and spent the whole first class period telling us why we should drop it. The material wasn't a problem, his "show work" requirement was. I kept getting dinged on the homework for not showing enough work--the hardest part was figuring out how to show enough "work" to make him happy. To me, show "work" means writing out what work I actually did. To him it meant spelling out basic algebra that was so simple I didn't think about it--this was a class that had second semester calculus as a prerequisite, at that point simple algebra is not something you think about when the numbers are small. (I have a sneaking suspicion that his graders were looking at volume rather than contents.)

If you were a good physics student you may not have appreciated just how bad some of the bad students could be.

Someone who couldn't handle that level of math wouldn't have passed the prerequisites.

 

[Bronzeage]

The basic problem of mathematics education is in order to understand and use the logic and reasoning of mathematics for any practical purpose(rocket science, etc), one must start long before their brain is capable if grasping logic and reasoning is biologically possible.

Elementary mathematic education is years of memorizing long lists of information. A first grader doesn't understand set theory, but does know that 2+3 equals 5. Eventually they will be able to produce the product of 11 multiplied by 9, simply from memory. Through it all, they will have no idea why they are doing any of this, other than it pleases the adults in the room. Ever since Sputnik, educators have been trying to find a way to make math education more effective, which is to say, less reliant on rote memorization. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be one.

Eventually the brain cells organize themselves in proper tiers and rows, and logic and reason begin to make sense. Those students who had the right kind of support, motivation, and reward, benefit from all those flash card drills. But then again, maybe a true grasp of mathematics requires a mild psychosis, something that doesn't really impair quality of life, but still warps one's perception of the world.

Eventually they may come up with something like "...this can result in using mathematics to uphold capitalist and imperialist ways of being and understandings of the world."

 

[J842P]

Perhaps what math equity is getting at is that there is usually more than one valid route to the right answer. I have experienced math teachers who have insisted there was one and only one right way to get an answer even when there more ways. And by "right way", I don't mean the best way or the specified methods but that any alternative method that would get the right answer was invalid.

No, I guess you are missing the context.

Here's the narrative context of the "showing your work is white supremacy:"

 

[Shadowy Man]

While I can see merit to showing work in my experience it was only done by lazy teachers wanting to ensure you didn't just copy the answer.

The worst I had was a physics teacher who insisted the class couldn't be properly taught in the summer session and spent the whole first class period telling us why we should drop it. The material wasn't a problem, his "show work" requirement was. I kept getting dinged on the homework for not showing enough work--the hardest part was figuring out how to show enough "work" to make him happy. To me, show "work" means writing out what work I actually did. To him it meant spelling out basic algebra that was so simple I didn't think about it--this was a class that had second semester calculus as a prerequisite, at that point simple algebra is not something you think about when the numbers are small. (I have a sneaking suspicion that his graders were looking at volume rather than contents.)

If you were a good physics student you may not have appreciated just how bad some of the bad students could be.

Someone who couldn't handle that level of math wouldn't have passed the prerequisites.

Fair enough. Then you probably just had a bad teacher. I’ve had plenty of those in my academic path.

 

[bigfield]

Perhaps what math equity is getting at is that there is usually more than one valid route to the right answer. I have experienced math teachers who have insisted there was one and only one right way to get an answer even when there more ways. And by "right way", I don't mean the best way or the specified methods but that any alternative method that would get the right answer was invalid.

No, I guess you are missing the context.

Here's the narrative context of the "showing your work is white supremacy:"

View attachment 31919

That's an entertaining infographic. Apparently it's from the Smithsonian NMAACH:
https://twitter.com/nmaahc/status/1283862959513632768?lang=en

It reads like something some old-timey racist like Immanuel Kant would make up. It basically says that self-reliance, scientific literacy, hard-work, self-discipline, and good manners are white.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

While I can see merit to showing work in my experience it was only done by lazy teachers wanting to ensure you didn't just copy the answer.

And in college... where the work is the actual important part, because some problems take over an hour to hours of work? Most of that math usually wasn't hard, it was about procedure.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Perhaps what math equity is getting at is that there is usually more than one valid route to the right answer. I have experienced math teachers who have insisted there was one and only one right way to get an answer even when there more ways. And by "right way", I don't mean the best way or the specified methods but that any alternative method that would get the right answer was invalid.

No, I guess you are missing the context.

Here's the narrative context of the "showing your work is white supremacy:"

View attachment 31919

That's an entertaining infographic. Apparently it's from the Smithsonian NMAACH:
https://twitter.com/nmaahc/status/1283862959513632768?lang=en

It reads like something some old-timey racist like Immanuel Kant would make up. It basically says that self-reliance, scientific literacy, hard-work, self-discipline, and good manners are white.

There is a decent amount of conserva-splainin' in there though, and some actual truths, of course, in order to push some further out there material, you need some truths. This doesn't prove that education is a radical indoctrination pit though.

 

[laughing dog]

Perhaps what math equity is getting at is that there is usually more than one valid route to the right answer. I have experienced math teachers who have insisted there was one and only one right way to get an answer even when there more ways. And by "right way", I don't mean the best way or the specified methods but that any alternative method that would get the right answer was invalid.

No, I guess you are missing the context.

Here's the narrative context of the "showing your work is white supremacy:"

View attachment 31919

And how is all of that related the notion that "showing your work" is a white person thing?

 

[laughing dog]

Perhaps what math equity is getting at is that there is usually more than one valid route to the right answer. I have experienced math teachers who have insisted there was one and only one right way to get an answer even when there more ways. And by "right way", I don't mean the best way or the specified methods but that any alternative method that would get the right answer was invalid.

Yes, but more than one way to answer a question would still require 'showing your work' to show how the alternate method worked. However, I didn't get that vibe, as the the 'reflection' sections asks teachers to provide mechanisms other than showing work to have students indicate they understand the content. Which is weird.

Yeah, since those other mechanisms, are, in essence, an attempt to get the student to "show their work".

 

[J842P]

And how is all of that related the notion that "showing your work" is a white person thing?

Ah well, you wouldn't understand because you are white and therefore racist. Fish in water and all that. It's ok, you can't do anything about it.

But you see, showing your work reinforces Whiteness and therefore White Supremacy because it privileges the written word. You can see this in the 'Communication' section of the infographic.

 

[J842P]

Perhaps what math equity is getting at is that there is usually more than one valid route to the right answer. I have experienced math teachers who have insisted there was one and only one right way to get an answer even when there more ways. And by "right way", I don't mean the best way or the specified methods but that any alternative method that would get the right answer was invalid.

Yes, but more than one way to answer a question would still require 'showing your work' to show how the alternate method worked. However, I didn't get that vibe, as the the 'reflection' sections asks teachers to provide mechanisms other than showing work to have students indicate they understand the content. Which is weird.

Yeah, since those other mechanisms, are, in essence, an attempt to get the student to "show their work".

You don't understand, expecting students to be able to write is White Supremacy. You need to decolonialize your pedagogy, otherwise you are basically literally a Nazi.

 

[thebeave]

And how is all of that related the notion that "showing your work" is a white person thing?

Ah well, you wouldn't understand because you are white and therefore racist. Fish in water and all that. It's ok, you can't do anything about it.

But you see, showing your work reinforces Whiteness and therefore White Supremacy because it privileges the written word. You can see this in the 'Communication' section of the infographic.

The "show your work" phrase would fit perfectly into the Protestant Work Ethic section of the infographic.

 

[J842P]

And how is all of that related the notion that "showing your work" is a white person thing?

Ah well, you wouldn't understand because you are white and therefore racist. Fish in water and all that. It's ok, you can't do anything about it.

But you see, showing your work reinforces Whiteness and therefore White Supremacy because it privileges the written word. You can see this in the 'Communication' section of the infographic.

The "show your work" phrase would fit perfectly into the Protestant Work Ethic section of the infographic.

There are many ways that expecting a POC to use the written word in an academic setting is White Supremacy, yes. I think you've got it. But you should probably not speak up so much, lean back, beave, you are still centering Whiteness.

Of course, nothing in this infographic could possibly be paternalizing (and certainly not patronizing). It was all produced by people who have Read Theory. It will produce freedom -- no, abolition.

 

[thebeave]

The "show your work" phrase would fit perfectly into the Protestant Work Ethic section of the infographic.

There are many ways that expecting a POC to use the written word in an academic setting is White Supremacy, yes. I think you've got it. But you should probably not speak up so much, lean back, beave, you are still centering Whiteness.

Of course, nothing in this infographic could possibly be paternalizing (and certainly not patronizing). It was all produced by people who have Read Theory. It will produce freedom -- no, abolition.

Good point. I will try to keep my whiteness under control (BTW, you're not supposed to capitalize whiteness., only Blackness) from here on out.

I'm a little shocked how many mainstream education organizations have supported this nonsense. Like the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. And LA County Office of Education. Depressing.

https://equitablemath.org/#about


Looks like they got generous funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I wonder if Bill really knows what they are doing with his contribution, or if he got bullied/snookered into forking it over.

 

[J842P]

The "show your work" phrase would fit perfectly into the Protestant Work Ethic section of the infographic.

There are many ways that expecting a POC to use the written word in an academic setting is White Supremacy, yes. I think you've got it. But you should probably not speak up so much, lean back, beave, you are still centering Whiteness.

Of course, nothing in this infographic could possibly be paternalizing (and certainly not patronizing). It was all produced by people who have Read Theory. It will produce freedom -- no, abolition.

Good point. I will try to keep my whiteness under control (BTW, you're not supposed to capitalize whiteness., only Blackness) from here on out.

I'm a little shocked how many mainstream education organizations have supported this nonsense. Like the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley. And LA County Office of Education. Depressing.

https://equitablemath.org/#about


Looks like they got generous funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I wonder if Bill really knows what they are doing with his contribution, or if he got bullied/snookered into forking it over.

You shouldn't be shocked, this is what education departments have been pumping out for the last two decades at least. It is entirely about creating activists. This is what you get.

It's also just awfully embarrassing. Like oh! You finally discovered that WASP culture was influential in the United States? Staggeringly cringe.

The problem, fundamentally, is that not a lot of interesting people from the 60's and 70's went to grad school in the humanities. The academy you have now is just the worst combination of middling followers with nothing interesting to say, entirely ensconced in these silos where their increasingly stupid social theories get criticized by no-one.

 

[laughing dog]

And how is all of that related the notion that "showing your work" is a white person thing?

Ah well, you wouldn't understand because you are white and therefore racist. Fish in water and all that. It's ok, you can't do anything about it.

But you see, showing your work reinforces Whiteness and therefore White Supremacy because it privileges the written word. You can see this in the 'Communication' section of the infographic.

Um you mean the idiotic part about "written tradition" (as if the Chinese and other Asian peoples do not have a written tradition)?

Moreover, showing one's work does not necessarily privilege the written word, especially in mathematics.

 

[J842P]

And how is all of that related the notion that "showing your work" is a white person thing?

Ah well, you wouldn't understand because you are white and therefore racist. Fish in water and all that. It's ok, you can't do anything about it.

But you see, showing your work reinforces Whiteness and therefore White Supremacy because it privileges the written word. You can see this in the 'Communication' section of the infographic.

Um you mean the idiotic part about "written tradition" (as if the Chinese and other Asian peoples do not have a written tradition)?

Moreover, showing one's work does not necessarily privilege the written word, especially in mathematics.

It's OK laughingdog. You cannot help but be racist. You should stop centering *your comfort* here and understand that the *lives of people of color* are at risk. Don't be Hitler.