Teach For America Unleashes SJW Math: ‘Western Mathematics’ Is Discriminatory!

Let that sink in: mathematics is only for dead white guys and is discriminatory against minorities. 

This is more than the usual bigotry of low expectations of the left. Via Daily Wire:

Social justice warriors have waged war on western civics for a considerably long time. However, they have finally begun their latest crusade on a cornerstone of K-12 education: Mathematics!

Teach for America and edX have joined forces to create a six-week online course titled “Teaching Social Justice Through Mathematics.” As Campus Reform reports, it attempts to teach middle school teachers how to incorporate social justice causes into the teaching of math. Here is how the course is described:

Do you ask students to think deeply about global and local social justice issues within your mathematics classroom? This education and teacher training course will help you blend secondary math instruction with topics such as inequity, poverty, and privilege to transform students into global thinkers and mathematicians.

Many concepts found in secondary mathematics curricula can seem abstract to students, but setting the mathematics within a specifically-developed social justice framework can help students realize the power and meaning of both the data and social justice concerns. Throughout this course, we will consider and apply different aspects of this framework as you explore multiple math and social justice activities as well as craft your own.

 Here is the syllabus:

Week 1: Course Orientation & Survey of Social Justice Issues
Introduction to course and survey of a selection of social justice issues.
 
Week 2: Understanding Your Social Justice Topic
Focus on researching and understanding the multiple facets of your chosen social justice issue.
 
Week 3: Let the Math Tell the Story
Identify the various data sets that exist around your social justice topic. Let the data inform the mathematics.
 
Week 4: Constructing the Lesson
Write the activity. This includes developing the student narrative and considering displays of data.
 
Week 5: Refining and Testing the Idea
Complete the activity. Gauge resultant versus intended takeaways. Gather feedback.
 
Week 6: Using the Course In Class & Course Wrap-Up
Use the activity you developed in your classroom or consider the implications of using one of these activities in a math classroom. This week also includes the course wrap-up.

If that does not appeal to one’s “social justice” quota, Reason reports that the course has multiple issues with Western mathematics, which is the foundation for most modern mathematics today. Here is what the course tells its students:

In western mathematics, our ways of knowing include formalized reasoning or proof, decontextualization, and algorithmic thinking, leaving little room for those having non-western mathematical skills and thinking processes… Mathematical ethics recognizes that, for centuries, mathematics has been used as a dehumanizing tool… mathematics formulae also differentiate between the classifications of a war or a genocide and have been used to trick indigenous peoples out of land and property.

In other words, Western mathematics is inherently discriminatory and it can be used to dehumanize the experiences of others. This follows similar logic of the Left where it takes issue with statistics when it argues that more black Americans are killed by other blacks or that the “wage gap” is nothing but a feminist myth. Nevertheless, Teach for America and edX are working tooth and nail to teach math teachers to ruin mathematics education through the use of nonsensical social justice tactics. This, in turn, will contribute to the dumbing down of the American public.

Right-Mind