Wow. Someone send these bozos a copy of Kenschaft's Notices article, stat!
In 2001 Mr. Young, Mrs. Wyatt and an assortment of other well-paid school administrators, defined the new number-one priority for teaching mathematics, as documented in the curriculum benchmarks, "Respect for Human Differences - students will live out the system wide core of 'Respect for Human Differences' by demonstrating anti-racist/anti-bias behaviors." It continues, "Students will: Consistently analyze their experiences and the curriculum for bias and discrimination; Take effective anti-bias action when bias or discrimination is identified; Work with people of different backgrounds and tell how the experience affected them; Demonstrate how their membership in different groups has advantages and disadvantages that affect how they see the world and the way they are perceived by others..." It goes on and on.These are the most important priorities that the school department has determined for teaching math from grade one through eight, as documented in the Newton [Massachusetts] Public Schools Benchmarks.
Nowhere among the first priorities for the math curriculum guidelines is the actual teaching of math. That's a distant second. To Superintendent Young and his School Committee, mathematical problem-solving is of secondary importance to anti-racist/anti-bias math.
But before you get too depressed, see the reaction from readers.
[via Prof Plum via Cranky Prof]
Wow, they're not even pretending to care about teaching math.
Posted by: Moebius Stripper | January 28, 2005 at 08:43 PM