This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
Americans can thank Bill Gates and his foundation for school lessons that teach that there is “white supremacy” in mathematics lessons across the country, that those create “systemic barriers to equity for black, Latinx and multilingual students,” and that the solution is, in fact, “antiracist math education.”
And for that, teachers must examine “the ways in which they perpetuate white supremacy culture in their own classrooms.”
A report from the Washington Examiner notes the lessons come from a plan called “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction,” which is promoted online.
“The Pathway offers guidance and resources for educators to use now as they plan their curriculum, while also offering opportunities for ongoing self-reflection as they seek to develop an anti-racist math practice. The toolkit ‘strides’ serve as multiple on-ramps for educators as they navigate the individual and collective journey from equity to anti-racism,” the programming intended for children explains.
And the Examiners notes that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation “is the only donor listed on a website for a group dedicated to eliminating racism from the nation’s math curriculum, which would be accomplished, in part, by eliminating the need for students to show their work after solving a math problem.”
Condemned in the lessons are the “focus” that insists students get the “right” answer and requiring students to “show their work.”
“White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,” the lessons charge. “Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.”
The lessons inform faculty, “Antiracist math educators deconstruct the ways they have been taught math to learn and teach math differently.”
Subtopics include “ethnomathematics,” “thoughtful scaffolding” and having students “reclaim their mathematical ancestry.”
Also important, it explains, is using math as “resistance,” and that includes teaching “students of color” to “disrupt the disproportionate push-out of people of color” in math and STEM fields.
Copyright 2024 WND News Center
