Math is based in white supremacy?

I’m having a hard time sorting through that article myself.

I’ll just say that many tests use words that disadvantage students with backgrounds that differ from the test maker. From that perspective, I am guessing (because I don’t know what the article’s original source material is) that this math program might be addressing bias in word problems. Below is an example of what that looks like. Many students can’t get the “right answer” because they don’t have the background to understand the context of the problem. In that light, yes it is racist.


The following example is a word problem that would challenge a student born and raised in the U.S. Consider how much harder it would be for an ELL who has grown up in Belarus, a small country in eastern Europe, where cash is the only negotiable currency.

"Oscar bought a new sweater that cost two hundred dollars. He paid for the sweater with a credit card with a simple interest rate of 1.7 percent per month and a ten dollar fee for late payments. If Oscar's first payment of $50 was late, what would be the balance on his next monthly statement?"

This word problem could be made more comprehensible for ELLs by adding an explanation of late charges and interest. The curriculum could also be modified to ensure that ELLs have a thorough understanding not only of the language, but also of the underlying concepts involved.

Quoted from www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/teaching-diverse-learners/question-iv-0

What’s amazing to me in this discussion is that this issue is still being discussed. I’m 56 years old. When I was little, “Good Times” was a popular TV show about a family in the Chicago projects. I’m sure there’s many here who remember it.

I vividly remember, to this day, an episode where the younger son, who is very bright, talks about the inequities in testing of school children and gives an example of things like analogies - they are asked what goes with a cup, but what kid in poverty would know the answer was saucer when they don’t have them?

I was in like 4th grade when I saw that and it always, always stayed with me - probably helped to inform my political views, interestingly enough.

Now, I don’t disagree that math has rules - and that’s what it makes it attractive to many: there’s nothing subjective. But how it’s taught can make a huge difference.