Postmodernist reasoning taken to its logical conclusion. Starts with zero, ends with identity-maths.
Is Maths Racist?
Free Press International News
The Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee (ESAC) has determined that math is subjective and racist.
In a draft for its Math Ethnic Studies framework, the ESAC writes that Western mathematics is “used to disenfranchise people and communities of color.”
Hammers and drills too. They build mansions for white people. Tools of oppression.
Using the ESAC’s framework, Seattle’s public school students will be able to “construct & decode mathematical knowledge, truth, and beauty” so that they can contribute to their communities.
Just what we need. More people to contribute wokeness and entitlement.
Students will also analyze the ways in which “ancient mathematical knowledge has been appropriated by Western culture,” and “identify how math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”
Six. Seven. Hate. Nine. Let’s ban the number hate!
In 2017, a University of Illinois math professor Rochelle Gutierrez argued in a newly published math education book for teachers that they must be aware of the identity politics surrounding the subject of mathematics.
Right now Gutierrez is oppressing black and asian mathematicians:
“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness,” she argues with complete sincerity, according to Campus Reform. “Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White.”
Some mathematicians are more equal than others:
Gutierrez also wrote that the importance of math skills in the real world places what she calls an “unearned privilege” for those who are good at it.
Unearned privilege being defined as anyone lucky enough to spend twenty years practicing algebra.
Because most math teachers in the United States are white, white people stand to benefit from their grasp of the subject disproportionate to members of other races.
Is she really saying afro-hispanic-asian people can’t learn maths from white teachers? If I said that, they’d put me in jail.
“Are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?” she asks, raising the question as to why math professors get more grants than “social studies or English” professors.
Indeed. Why do lawyers earn more than maths professors? Why do English professors get paid more than hair dressers? It’s so unfair. We could pay everyone the minimum wage. To quote that great Russian ethnic: “From each according to his ability,…” Did leftist intellectual reasoning start with Karl Marx, or end there?
Shame Prof Gutierrez cant see cultural injustice. People who are good at maths have been oppressed for a hundred thousand years. The Eulers of the iron age were wasted, digging holes and smiting voles. They were denied their cultural identity, mocked for their spear throwing and forced to live in a world without numbers, or even a PDP-11. Now, after 5,000 generations, finally they have a chance to shine.
It’s free world. We won’t expect her to turn up to the national sorry maths day, but Gutierrez can always work on her own culturally inclusive maths, with woke numbers, and use it to design her own unoppressive phone.
h/t Howard “Cork” Hayden
Chucked my cup onto the counter last night and as it went, “woink,woink, woink” in faster and faster cycles I thought of Euler. A bright lad, he were.
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Sounds like there wasn’t much friction involved?
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“Prefessor Gutierrez” ?
Well well she is an idiot in my opinion
No doubt a well paid one too.
Whatever er colour !
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The plunge into the Idiocene continue in the west
We have dumbed down education in STEM subjects over the last 30 years. We now have an over supply of touchy feely arty farty degrees whose graduates feel entitled and at the same time feel inferior Typical of the little man syndrome they try and feel better by putting down people who are obviouysly smarter and more productive to society than they are.
Unfortunately, in western democracies, these people are given the vote and they now have the numbers to “white ant” western civilisation.
Aided and abetted of course by MSM and the our auntie ABC
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There seem to two Professors Gutierrez, one male,older, who seems to have been a bit of a firebrand in the1960s, and one female, younger.
Look them up.
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Something I recall from geometry.Faces plus vertices equals edges plus 2. I wrote it in formulaic manner so you lesser types don’t understand!!
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Are you sure. 😉
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Ahhh,no. Recall!
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Chuckle, just messing with you.
You were correct for any non-holey polyhedron type solid. Called the “Euler characteristic”.
Putting a hole through the object changes the topology, and with 1 hole, becomes F + V – E = 0
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In college I took a class called History of Mathematics.
One of the more interesting classes I’ve ever passed.
History of the sciences is well worth exploring, although
it helps to know a little science beforehand.
Likely the good folks of Seattle Public School ESAC
cannot pass through the eye of this needle.
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Chiefio explores some of this in his classification of Metrology
An example and there are more there
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/making-an-english-foot/
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This was a good read at the time.
“Understanding The Present – Science and the Soul of Modern Man”, Brian Appleyard, 1992.
Innumeracy for idiots, 1990, would probably be helpful too.
Quantum Electrodynamics by Richard Feynman 1961 was a shameless emblem of white-supremacy and racial oppression though.
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I have a book (pre- politically correct) my father got many years ago by a mathematical historian. He states that much of ‘western’ if you can call it that mathematics derived from India, Persia and China, as well as the usual Greece. The number notation system 1,2,3,4,5, is from India. Roman numerals were used up to the middle ages and beyond. So exactly where is the ‘white’ component?
Mathematics in its form has nothing to do with any superior culture as suggested by this article.
“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as Whiteness,” Absurd.
If some ethnicities arent learning well, I put it down to the teaching.
A film was shown on ch& few months ago cant remember the name about the lady (black) mathematicians who calculated the rocket equations for NASA in their space missions in the 60s.
There are also numerous studies, most not very PC, about IQ vs race.
Its up to the bias of the reader..
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THis is the movie GD posted it below ..‘Hidden Figures’.
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You could also include the ancient Sumerians (as transmitted by the Babylonians to the Greeks) for their Sexagesimal numeral system with sixty as its base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and is still used—in a modified form—for measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinates.
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Another great piece Jo.
In a world gone mad sometimes the only tool or weapon that fits the bill is that demonstrated here;
Sar Kasm, or should that be Sah Chasm.
Yes, we do need a National Sorry Day of Mathematical Shame and I personally apologise for being mathematically literate.
KK
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The only earned privilege are strong muscles. That’s where we are heading.
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It started with changes to the Marriage Act. You know, when only ONE side of the story the would be heard and at great personal cost for any individual who defended traditional marriage. A low bow I’m sure to draw, but i had to do it.
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The totally crap way kids are taught long division these days suddenly makes sense.
All the estimation bullshit is just to avoid being racist.
Upon seeing him using this method to do his homework I immediately indoctrinated my son in the vile ways of oppression by showing him the old school way.
Seeing this his first comment was “But it hardly takes any time at all! Why don’t we get shown this way?”
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It worth pointing out that the ability to do simple arithmetic allows even a casual voter to totally invalidate the premises of the policies of the left.
Better that the answer to a quantitative question involve the social justice of the answer.
Example.
Q. if the unfunded pensions of a public jurisdiction are 100 Million dollars, and require a 1/5th contribution each year for remediation each year
in addition to the normal contribution, what will the annual remediation contribution be?
A. Public pensions are a sacred trust that cannot be compromised under any circumstances.
See? Making maths socially conscious is easier than you thought. Lets make up an interesting question about wind power for the Australian texts.
Q. If the nampelate capacity ……..
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Richard
Yes, the Left cannot do maths ever. That is why we have Leftist govts always running out of money..
To your examples I would add the BOM and their inability to make temperature graphs that track the actual recorded temps…
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Have you never heard of “Good enough for governmment work”?
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Yes, an old lecturer of mine used to say that often.
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I remember a lecture in South Africa where a socialist economics professor (who had the misfortune to be lumped in with a group of 13 engineers and 22 accountants) made a comment about how governments could keep borrowing for ever and increase the wealth of the nation.
This was challenged and he ended up trying to mathematically explain how this could be. He did claim it would be easy to prove.
He launched into the maths, and all was going swimmingly until we pulled him up because of a change of basis (nominal and real rates of inflation). Suddenly he was looking flustered and attempted to talk us down, which prompted a gaggle of indignant engineers telling him he was full of crap and you could not change basis like that. The accountants in the room had glazed eyes and later told us they didn’t really understand what we were on about.
Eventually he accepted our protest and continued but with the correctly adjusted basis.
It took him about 2 minutes to see where it was headed as it became clear that the usual smoke and mirrors progressives rely upon was not going to fool anyone.
I accept now though that we were being racist in using whitefella maths, particularly to a HDSA person.
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I suggest that the Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee (ESAC) watches the wonderful movie, the ‘Hidden Figures’.
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GD it’s obviously NOT those people of THAT COLOR she was talking about!!
Pay attention!!
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Aren’t those below the burquah?
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Math is bad for them BECAUSE learning the fundamentals of math is a good start on learning how to think.
That someone learns how to use their own minds is seen as a specific danger to their power over others. A power they must maintain at all costs. Otherwise, they fear they will cease to exist. Way down deep where it really counts, they know they can’t exist on their own and must have slaves to stay alive.
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No I think it is more like I didn’t excel in maths and I’m not stupid, it can’t be gypsie lads are stupid, so if they don’t excel in maths, it must be because doing maths is too white.
It’s bollocks for people who just are plain incapable to anything else than being fashionably woke. Or robbing people at knifepoint.
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Who needs to able to do mental arithmetic to provide a customer with change?
Check out personnel have cash register computers for that purpose.
wink!
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It seems that the woke community is against the sharing of human knowledge with all of humanity.
On another note, as a further example, because some people aren’t good at sports, should that mean sports should be banned at schools?
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And don’t forget that using proper grammar is also racist: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/10/24/ball-state-guest-lecturer-using-proper-grammar-is-racist/
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Well that’s it then – any possible scrap of cred these Lefty idiots had, is now gone.
That was the “Foolish XR protester on the underground train roof” moment………
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I’m having a moment of feeling triggered because i might be unwittingly racist because I cut my grass in a clockwise direction.
I do try to throw in a more progressive pattern towards the end when I will use a herringbone pattern for that last long strip in the middle.
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Any pattern would be racist Dean.
Best to do it chaotically and adjust your blade settings randomly as well, so that you get 3D chaos.
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You’re racist for having lawn, and a lawnmower!
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So right, Lionell.
It’s the principle the Australian indoctrination system posing as education has operated on for more than four decades…since Whitlam….designed by Marxist academics…implemented by Fabian Socialist politicians….compliance enforced by LW journalists who ensure no conservative Minister survives if he even looks like successfully restoring tradition education.
Even now when it’s undeniable that Australian education is sinking like a stone …the architects of its demise are given all the moral high ground by the LW journalists…as the only party to be trusted with restoring it to the very high position in world rankings the Australian education system once held.
As you implied the Left’s success in producing unthinkers with the tunnel vision required for the ‘ends justifies the means’ Marxist mindset…who nevertheless believe themselves to be ‘thought leaders’….precludes generational change….and dooms Australia.
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Mathematically expressed as ‘Stupid=Stupid’.
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well as they changed the definition of racism…why not..
.
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When our Federal Labor Government decided to throw more money at a student failing public State education system, called “Gonski” after the author of the plan, and negotiations with State Government were completed, the then Coalition Opposition stated that, if elected to government in September 2013, they would honour the Labor Budget commitment for financial year 2013/14 and the following forward estimate years, but after that no guarantee of continuing the funding.
The Coalition also said that they would re-negotiate with State Government for a return to basics, including of course maths. When negotiations commenced it was discovered that many younger teachers had not been trained to teach those old subjects, and until teachers were taught the necessary skills no change was possible. Since 2013 reports on school student’s skill level revealed that the standard continues to slip backwards, Australia well behind other developed countries.And despite a substantial additional funding grants arrangement, Gonski.
The New South Wales Coalition Government announced this week that the return to basics teaching would proceed, but once again the issue of teacher skills has been raised? It’s now over six years since Gonski started, and from when the back to basics negotiations commenced? As State Government has the primary responsibility for public education and the public schools are State owned, the lack of progress must be State Government based, however teacher education is Federal Government responsibility.
Former Australian Prime Minister Gillard was proud of Gonski grants extra funding for schools, and the Teachers Union welcomed it placing advertisement signs on public school fences in support of their Labor Government achievement.
However, before PM Gillard announced her education focus former UK Labour Prime Minister Blair did it, and the UK public education system has fallen behind. In Australia the Labor Prime Minister Whitlam led government during the 1970s introduced free university education, modified by Prime Minister Hawke to require a student contribution toward university fees. Foreign students continue to pay the full fee. However, many Australians now talk about the “dumbing down” of students since free university education was introduced almost fifty years ago. Now we are learning that teachers are not capable of teaching the basics, another example is journalism and schools of journalism producing too many leftist left leaning journalists. State Labor Governments have allowed the TAFE education system to be run down and today there is a skills shortage involving building trades and other trades. The focus has been on university education and churning out in many instances more graduates than there are jobs for them.
It looks to me like deliberate social engineering and happening in most if not all developed countries?
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Yes absolute Tokenism.
Australian education is no credit to the political class.
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Australian Teachers area joke. I’d cut their pay in half.
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I should have included that in my opinion pushing young people into universities rather than encouraging them into trades based further education was well thought through, a few more years for encouraging socialism and demonising capitalism, noting the stated UN IPCC objective to get rid of the capitalist system ( reference UN Official Christiana Figureres 2015 and others).
But it is also interesting to consider that because of the shortage of trades people hourly rates are high and longer working hours combine to produce a very high income, well above average and often higher than graduates receive. Will the trades people save us from ruin?
And from various reports the socialist globalist side has made considerable progress convincing young people that the (working well) capitalist system is bad.
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As an ex- secondary school teacher who bailed out at 20,000 feet in 1985, I can only assess the the contemporary cohort as abysmal. There has been a strategic failure at tertiary level teacher training.It is no joke that our whole system is in dysfunction. Then again if I were a conspiracy theorist…….
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Less math – more climate modelers…
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Definitely JP. My wife appreciates reviewing the current trends displayed in the ‘Sports Illustrated’ swim suit projections.
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John Galt posits that “the noblest act you have ever performed is the act of your mind in the process of grasping that two and two make four”. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957)
So, the stage is set. There is no argument with demented ideologues such as Rochelle Gutierrez or “committees” like the Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee (ESAC). There can be no discussion, with the criminally insane or with the Schicklgruber’s of this world. While they peddle their Alinsky-esque nonsense in a captive an captivated media, political and educational market places, those that can, and those with sense, find alternative avenues for education, whether by moving away or moving on-line. As always, the materially and intellectually impoverished will bear the brunt, as indeed they always do, of this State sanctioned stupidification.
As I keep saying, the day of pitch forks grows closer.
As Orwell stated, “Na-si [socialist neo-Marxist] theory indeed specifically denies that such a thing as “the truth” exists. … The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, “It never happened” – well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five – well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me [us all !] much more than bombs.”
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Jo, sorry about that. I did it again–that is I posted my comment to Latus Dextro on a “named thread” rather than an “unthreaded thread.” Please delete that comment and this comment from this the “Seattle School says Maths is racist, used to oppress people of color” thread.
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I think these people have the mortgage on stupid….
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Hell NO!
Money grows on trees & I’m entitled to compensation for your “Mathematical Racist Slurs”
Gimme, gimme, gimme Modern Monetary Theory & UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME!
THOSE RICH TREES CAN PAY FOR IT WITH ALL THEIR CARBON MONEY!!!!!
/sarc.
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So, the Hindu-Arabic number system is “white man” maths?
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C. VI. IV MIC, III
The old white numbering system should be reinstated.
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Is that a code?
lol
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No meaning.
Not having used it for 65 years that’s the best I could do.
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100, 6, 4, 1099, 3 ?
With acknowledgement to the original owners of this script.
Now and forever more.
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99 is usually XCIX but I couldn’t say that IC is actually wrong just malformed.
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Watching “The Bill”, they often used codes to refer to peoples appeareances e.g. “IC1 male” etc.
Not sure of such a thing is still in use…think of the numebr of codes now with all the new alleged “genders” at play….they must have 1000s of codes by now , surely?
Think of the fun we could have with roman numerals…..
Seriously…the Left are demented….
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olo
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Good
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Meanwhile L is XXXXX.
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What about those clothes that are labelled XXL?
And XS. That makes no sense at all.
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Indeed it does not, in the original.
I believe they’re referring to extra, extra large or ‘xtra, ‘xtra, large, XXL.
XXL looks and feels so much less threatening and more trendy than Fatso^3, ^2, ^1 etc
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The year 1999 in Roman Numerals was MCMXCIX, or one thousand plus one thousand minus one hundred plus one hundred minus ten plus ten minus 1.
The longest (in years – to date) Roman numeral is for the year 1888 MDCCCLXXXVIII – One thousand, Five Hundred, One hundred, one hundred, one hundred, fifty, ten, ten, ten, five, one, one, one. There will be a 14 letter date this Millenium, in 2888, adding another M at the front end of 1888.
Tony.
(a lot of people forget the D for 500)
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Why is that?
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The year 2888 is MMDCCCLXXXVIII and has 14 characters.
Just sayin’…
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and 3888 has 15 characters.
Is this a game?
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David, that number reminds me of modern politics.
Why say something concisely when you can appear more important by dropping a larger dose on people.
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Ah yes, Tony. Tricky to add, subtract, multiply and divide in that system.
But Roman kids weren’t dumb, they used an abacus for doing their arithmetic.
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In her later life, my Mum would go overseas every so often, and occasionally bring back presents for the grand children.
On one visit she brought back a quality Abacus from South East Asia for our Son, who was in Grade 11 at the time.
He assiduously learned how to use it, master it in fact, and once he thought he was good enough, he took it along to school, and was using it in his Maths class instead of the ubiquitous ‘plastic brain’, which all students used. The teacher saw him using it and gently persuaded him to come to the front of class and demonstrate its use with two other students who had their plastic brains in hand. Now, I know our Son, and I can say with all honesty, that this was probably his intent all along, otherwise he would not have taken so much time to master it first. There was a clique of around five students who were at the top of his class, and he was one of them, (all quite friendly really) and they would feed off each other to spur each other on, and at Ipswich State High, one of the lesser schools for educational prowess in the State, this year, they had six students, our Son one of them, who all got the highest entry scores for University, the first time that school had achieved that with so many students from Grade 12.
Back with the abacus, he told us (revelled in it in fact that evening at home) that it was the teacher in fact who was most impressed when setting a number of mathematical ‘problems’ he resolved them faster on his abacus than the students with the plastic brains. Anyway, there was all round astonishment that the one with the abacus was faster than the others with calculators.
Tony.
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The current numbering system
1, 23, 4, 5, etc including 0, zero,
Was invented in India
round 1400 years ago.
Of course all Indians
Are ‘white supremacists’
🙂
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Yes, and apparently by recognising its superiority and adopting it, we “appropriated” it.
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I guess you didn’t get the memo, AngyGLV, but a knowledge of history is racist, as well.
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AndyGLV, not AngyGLV
Sorry
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The white race has certainly made the best use of it. My evidence? the modern world.
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Is maths racist?
Why do you ask, two dogs?
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A few non-whites of great mention.
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
Diophantus of Alexandria
Satyendra Nath Bose, (Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate)
Anyone done statistics? How about the Rao–Blackwell–Kolmogorov theorem ?
(look up the nationalities of David Harold Blackwell and Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao)
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Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Was Hypatia Egyptian or Roman? But most definitely female.
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Actually Greek !
And not a Christian one.
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Maths is racist, that’s why white kids are better at maths than black kids. Stands to reason, they’re being deliberately held back by white people.
And that’s why Asian kids are better at maths than black kids and white kids.
Hang on. I think I need to do a rethink. 🙁
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In fact, maths are used to repress all of us.
Talking about those GameBoy brats with their models getting gang-review stars in the Publish-then-Perish industry.
“Whoops! We forgot about cloud. Never mind. Next model, if we can fit it…maybe. UHI? If it existed we’d be modeling it. Oh, okay, make up some numbers for UHI, but keep ’em on the low side. Wind, dust, aeolian processes…mineral composition of melt-water…subterranean, hydrospheric, atmospheric and extra-planetary interactions? Oh, c’mon, our reviewers want a model, not the whole Ford F150!”
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Right up there with the nitwits in Portland.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich-is-racist-says-portland-school-official/
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Aha, but our maths have more diversity than Seattle’s math does!
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Maths is a language, does this mean we can speak in maths anymore?
There goes all engineering……
Its funny…the backlash against PC and the Left is really starting to get going.
The more outrageous this stuff gets, the closer PC gets to being universally trashed permanantly.
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It would seem that the disciples of stupidity are determined to fail no matter what the sensible among us think or do. I say, let them fail. The human race is way past its use-by date anyway. But before we let them go I would ask them the same questions I’ve been asking. Once you have things your way, who is going to know how to keep the generators turning; who will know how to come up with the next smart phone; who will know how to keep the wheels of civilization turning?
So mathematics is subjective and racist, not to mention homophobic and maybe it causes zits too. Who knew?
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PS:
As I remember it, Math was the one subject where I was made to learn the proof of very last theorem they taught me. There was the ultimate demand for not only evidence but proof. I guess our mistake as skeptics was in thinking evidence and poof meant anything when clearly they don’t. Just ask this Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee if you don’t believe me.
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PPS:
I have steadfastly refused to say what I really think about all this because if I did speak my mind I’m sure Jo would have a fit and ban me from the site forever.
Enough said.
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Roy,
We know that to comment intelligently on an undeserving subject is to pay it unworthy homage and in so doing to accord it surrogate value.
It is valueless, deserving of nothing more than derision, and comedic dismissal together with its demented purveyors.
How or why anyone would pay the slightest bit of serious attention to such meaninglessness is utterly beyond me.
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They pay attention to each other for the reason I explain below. This is from email I sent Jo congratulating her on exposing this nonsense.
And that’s the truth when you strip away all the credentials and nonsense. It’s just normal human nature run amok. Like children on the playground, where each child is struggling for recognition, they have to keep up the game of follow the leader and one-up each other to keep their share of the recognition. It’s as pathological as anything has ever been and it does no one any good.
I wish I knew what makes the difference between those who fall into that trap and those who don’t. I could be a world famous psychiatrist overnight.
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“Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee “
When I read that title..
Why do I think of Peter Gleick ?
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oops.. at 6:35am this morning, I read that as “Ethics” not “Ethnics”
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AndyG55,
umm, please don’t tell me that ‘English’ is racist too!
Tony.
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Of course it is Tony. It’s spoken by white men like you and me. We did military service and are not ashamed of it. We spend our lives doing useful things, things others will pay for voluntarily because they benefit from what we do.
If a life like that is not racist I don’t know what is. And that is what they are afraid of Tony, guys like you and me who every day quietly show the world the right way to live life.
I can see now what our mistake was, we believed in something and the empty heads trying to run your country and mine can’t stand that. They can’t stand it because it shows them up for the wasted lives they live every day.
Embrace being a racist Tony. Be proud of it. In today’s world being stood upside-down every day by foolishness and stupidity, it is a badge of honor.
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Which is why they are trying to brainwash the young, coz the older and experienced generation see it for the steaming pile of nonsense it is, and take the Left to task over it…..
Only bad stuff happens in the “dark” of ignorance and the masterful con job the Left has created around the whole CAGW cult….
If it could happen out in the open, it would be clearly shown for what it is…but it cant.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
( John 3:20-21 )
QED
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Roy, you mentioned this:
That is the single thing in my life that I am the most proud of.
Virtually everyone I mention it to replies ….. “Oh, so it was just a job then.” (the underlying point not mentioned, that ….. well you probably couldn’t get a job in the real World)
They had terms of enlistment. You had to sign on for six years originally. Why that was was for ROSO. (Return Of Service Obligation) Everone had to do basic training (military training) From there you went and did your training for the job you were going to do, and in my case that was Trade Training. You did a three and a half Month Initial Trade Training so they could (sort of) work out what Trade you were best suited to of the six aircraft trades and one mechanical Trade. (Motor Transport Fitter) Then you went to Trade Training and usually that entailed two separate courses, and in the case of my Trade, the Electrical Trade, two seven Month courses separated by a year in the field at a Squadron.
That ROSO I mentioned was that at the end of your Trade training you had to work in that Trade for three to four years or so, to ‘repay’ the time and money invested in training you for that Trade.
The number of men who got out after those first six years was quite large indeed, having virtually got a good trade for no personal cost. The number (percentage) of people who made it to ten years was a very small one indeed. If you held out for longer, you (naturally) rose through the ranks and got out of hands on work, and then into Man Management, Admin, and Supervision. The carrot then became making it to 20 years and eligibility for Super. Sometimes at the 15 year mark, ‘you ran the risk’ of being posted back to your original trade training base to then teach that trade to new guys. At that 15 year mark, it then became a choice. Go or get out. You know, I’ll work in my trade, but I won’t (or can’t) teach. I made it to 18 years before that day came and I took the offer to actually return again some of the benefits I had by remaining in the Service. It was probably six of the best years in the RAAF for me, but really, they were all good.
When I say that ….. “I served my Country for 25 years in the Royal Australian Air Force”, I still get the occasional “Oh! So it was just a job then. The serving your Country bit is just a bit of embellishment.”
I taught that electrical trade to new people, but I learned things also. As I have found out, those things I thought of as totally useless back when I was being trained have become immensely handy to me in my later life.
I was given the teaching responsibility for the longest subject phase of that electrical trade training course, the totally Mathematics based ElecTech2, AC electrical theory, and it was there that I learned the salutary lesson that anything of an electrical nature is based solely around Mathematics.
That’s not racist. It’s just the facts.
Tony.
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I did only 3 years active duty but those years were the best education about the world and about myself that I could ever hope for. I didn’t like being sent to Vietnam but I went and I learned a lot there too.
As you said, “It’s just the facts.” You and I accepted the challenge that close to no one will take on anymore. Instead, from them we get racist mathematics. Frankly I wish they would bring back the draft. It might yank a few heads back to where the sun shines every day.
80
Tony,
We might throw them a real math challenge and ask them to describe how an electromagnetic wave works, just an ordinary radio wave and see how they will do it without Maxwell’s Equations. That ought to spin their heads around for a while.
Partial differential equations anyone?
20
Please, don’t think for a minute that I understand all that. But I know what all that shows us and how important it is in this day of everything electronic and Wi-Fi connected. Let this advisory committee get anything done in the field of RF with math that suddenly is subjective with every student imagining his own version of it.
20
I forgot to mention this that Jo quotes. It got under my skin big time.
Unearned? To just get to the level of math proficiency I have was hard work. I earned that proficiency and any advantage that give me and anyone who is willing to do the work can also have that privilege. Gutierrez is a fool.
80
And they speak of climate anxiety, this garbage is enought to send anyone around the bend
80
I’ve go their “climate anxiety” right here.
In my day we called it “entertainment.”
20
I like clever wordplays, and came up with a beauty a few years ago. The reason the Socialist creed:
doesn’t work is because the true foundation of Socialism is:
Sadly, a bit of Googling around showed I was far from the first to think of this crack. Fun anyway.
160
Best quote I saw on this :
“You vote your way into Socialism, but you have to shoot your way out of it”
So true…..no wonder the Socialists love gun confiscation…..er….gun control…..er…disarmament…for our own “good” of course….
Make me wonder how the current communist soft coup in USA will ultimately go – there are a lot of armed citizens who like liberty and freedom…..
50
I can finally admit it, 2nd partial second order differential equations oppressed me. I feel so much freer now.
90
“2nd partial second order differential equations oppressed me”
Try “combinatorial topology”, and “field and ring” theory
Rather stretchy of the mind !!
70
or try “Laplace transforms” and “surface integrations”
stretchy on the mind 🙂
70
A Perfect example of the wacky social justice movement, which is now teamed with the climate change movement, to creat the even wackier climate justice movement.
The fundamental assumption of the social justice nuts is that every aspect of modern life is racist, because society is a system, see. Everything conspires to “minoritize” (their word) the minorities (including women, never mind the math). So of course math is racist in their twisted eyes. You name it, it is racist.
There is no way to help these people.
100
Well , apparently nothing new here . Mrs Sylvana Simons a descendant from a Surinam slave family and a political representative for the Baltimoral part of Amsterdam , in local slang called Bijlmer is a very loud proponent of culturally inclusive math presently not teached in normal schools together with reparations for the slavery of her grandparents . She is a naturally gifted speaker without shame capable of using the most difficult Latin double-speak in her musings about simple Dutch reality . She is showing a type of moral superiority combined with playing the deplorable victim of elitist white superiority . Her words are clearer and more outspoken than her skin-color , the main denominator of her constituents . Well Sylvana is not hindered in her statements .by the fact that math requires clear straightforward thinking without any errors .
She is giving the impression that math is comparable to black magic and that voodoo science which is not teached in Dutch schools is a cause of the backwardedness of her political clientele . The way math is treated by these algebrafobics it should remain exclusive for a few bright minds who enjoy clear thinking .
110
Didn’t you realize that most mobile phones are black and just a minority are white? That is obviously to further oppress colour people to be always servants. Obviously.
[/sarc]
20
The history of mathematics is very short. It came from india via arabic m*slim culture to Europe. Using tens, then the concept of zero, the concept of negative, the concept of the decimal point. Then one set of units, not physical units like the thumb (inch), the foot (foot), the yard (pace), the cubit (forearm), the ounce, the pound. One for length or distance or height, one for weight, one for volume. There is an interesting theory that the Egyptians used rope around drums for length and the drums for height, which would build pi into the pyramids to very high accuracy, as happened.
In an amazing way, Isl*m was responsible for the importation of the decimal point from India. As property had to be divided equally among children, that was not possible without the decimal point. This arrived around 1100 AD and changed everything but fractions persisted until my childhood and in the US, they use them universally for measurement. 5′ 3 1/2″ for example. However they have a hybrid where tens are used, not the good British system of a base 12. So there are 2000 lbs in a ton, not 2400. Some other units exist like Nautical miles, knots.
However like paper, ink, gunpowder, silk, weaving, machinery, iron it is what the amazing Europeans did with everything which created the modern world. And a melting pot like Europe is racist? When everyone looks so different? This is a made up guilt trip, like all leftist mantra. Conflating global warming, wealth, education, mathematics, manufacturing, consumerism and democracy with whiteness is absurd. Is there nothing Europeans the Anglosphere did not do better than others? Even music? From Classical to rock to jazz to the Beatles? Even the instruments from the piano to the electric guitar.
However Europeans also invented morality, guilt, a concept of sin and forgiveness and even a sense of right and wrong. Ultimately they banned and eradicated slavery, serfdom, racial distinctions and continually seek a way to life in peace. And that is the weak point. To attack Western democracies militarily is folly as they know to fight for freedom. So to attack them you need their one weakness, their Christian concept of guilt.
And is there no evil in the world for which Imperialist Capitalist Western White democracies are not responsible? How are the former Imperial countries after being granted their freedom? How many are successful? How many are rolling disasters oppressed by their own rulers in military and tribal dictatorship?
The claims still is that the Europeans are the historic oppressors responsible for all the problems of the world and they should pay up. According to the United Nations where 75% of the countries are military dictatorships, kleptocracies. They love the billions on offer for man made Global Warming and all claim they are victims. Puerto Rico is howling about the billions promised by the US recently for hurricane repair, when the money has vanished in the hands of the government which is complaining.
Still to attack mathematics as racist is really odd. When people are innumerate, they lack education not skill. This could only be written by someone who has decided mathematics is evil, like language. Any excuse for failure will do.
And on ‘whiteness’ people are whiter and larger as the country gets cold, like the animals the arctic polar bear, fox, owl. It’s just survival, natural selection, not choice. Increase size and surface area/volume goes down, so larger animals can survive longer in extreme cold and live on body fat in the long winters. The Siberian Tiger is white and much larger than the huge Bengal Tiger. And you have to escape predators, so you need to blend in against the white.
No one needs sunscreen in Africa. The pharmacists do not sell it. The connection of latitude with whiteness is just natural selection, not choice or oppression. What is also natural selection is that Europeans after endless wars and invasions, largely from Asia and India, have slowly evolved a system of living which is being copied around the world. Their wars have promoted inventions like nowhere else on the planet. And they have been copied. People wanted their inventions, the manufactured goods, their amazing clocks and their admirable and fair government. How else do you explain the conquest of India by a group of 20 clerks in London running the East India Company?
And when is race just colour? Even Hitler claimed Aryan descent for his incredible mixture of people he called Germans and the Aryans were a light skinned Northern India tribe.
It is also an attitude to risk and reward. Only America has put men on the moon. Why? And why only America? That was been fifty years ago.
Only Western democracies are prepared to change, explore, invent, develop, reward. It also has a system of patents which allow inventors to profit from their inventions and this right is protected by the government. And Europe has exported those skills endlessly, including government.
There is something about tough commercial competition which generates continuous improvement, a hallmark of the west. Kleptocracies kill innovation and demand compensation because if you steal everything, soon there is nothing to steal.
All science is based absolutely on mathematics, since Rene Descartes. It is the underlying philosophy of all science. Completely missing in the history of science is the silly concept of consensus science in the so called Climate Science. If enough of your friends agree with you, it must be right. So ‘scientists say’ is the most prolific phrase in Climate Science.
So they are right. Mathematics is racist. Perfected in Europe, it underpins science. But it is completely free to the poorest people. A matter of choice. Certainly not oppression. That doesn’t add up. It’s easier to complain than to bother to learn. You cannot legislate against laziness.
It is also obvious that so many Indians are very talented in mathematics and computer science. That is not to be mentioned, because it might be racist. But they did invent it.
90
Six Rules for Radicals: Manual for the Destruction of Western Civilisation:
1. Destroy the Economy, attack on all fronts where it hurts most. Never let up.
2. Attack Energy efficiency. Substitute Medieval intermittent technology for Industrial Revolution 24/7 efficient fossil fuel technology.
3. Attack the basis of Western Liberty. Constrain the individual’s right to free thinking and freedom of action. Make the populace sheeple, groupies, not innovators.
4. Push Gender Politics. The independent western male is the main target. Undermine and reduce him.
5. Education is Your Radical Game Changer. Never let up. Values-indoctrination replacing skills-education and critical thought. Suss-tainability and P.C. thought to permeate every curriculum subject.
6. Mathematics Must Be Subverted. It’s the basis of enquiry, get rid of it.
Can’t have this going on …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw30CgaXiQw
120
With a stick and his brain and paying someone to walk in a straight line at a steady pace counting steps for 800km. Life, I guess.
My question is how they performed multiplication and division then? I suppose they used whole numbers 7/360 and 800 stadia. Or an abacus? The poor Romans could not automate and even Pythagoras could not perform a square root. His triangle solution used square bits of wood, so the square on the hypotenuse equaled the sum of the squares on the other two sides.
70
They’re wrong. Maths is very inclusive. Half the integers are odd and there are far more irrational numbers.
140
And you can also play with imaginary ones.
Cheers
Dave B
50
“you can also play with imaginary ones.”
So even “climate scientists” can feel “not left out”!!
40
Oh, the inclusiveness: just wants to make you melt.
And then, an image of Hillary and AOC comes and restores reality.
30
In fact you could say that maths is a divine subject, since most numbers are transcendental -:)
30
Jaw-dropping. Like the Indiana “Pi Bill” that passed unopposed in the Indiana House of Representatives in February 1897 (but failed in the Indiana Senate amid prolonged mirth). The bill effectively made Pi equal to 3.2.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill
Note: A more recent report of politicians wanting to redefine Pi as 3.0 was an April Fool.
70
Giant mutant Space-Goat – just sayin.
50
Just when you think the loony left can’t dip to a lower level of thinking, they find a way …
Mathematics is the science of logic and reasoning and therefore it’s not surprising that the loony left want to ignore this subject. Linking maths to white people and then claiming a racist connection is just the loony left’s way of using their hatred of western culture as an excuse to reject all logical thoughts and ideas that they
are unable to comprehend and accept their own stupidity as normal.
This racist claim can be represented by the below equation:
Magnitude of loony left stupidity (L) = 1/0
50
Is it not an unfortunate fact that a significant number of, and demonstrated to have been amongst the best of the mathematicians that carried out the calculations for NASA moon landings program were, unfortunately for this argument not white??????
70
Here was silly old me thinking that when they independently developed calculus Newton and Leibniz were white. But thanks to that nice Prof Gutierrez I now understand that they were of colour and that when I learned calculus at school I was unwittingly oppressing and marginalizing people and communities of color. If only I had known I would not have pursued a science degree but would have done a more socially meaningful course like advanced basket weaving.
70
Hitler rejected “jewish physics” and did not get the Bomb.
Stalin rejected “capitalist cybernetic” and delayed advance of computer age in Russia. He also rejected “Western Ploy” of genetics which , in part, caused famine.
Look where are their states now…
Enough said.
110
In the 1960s, we were taught plain and solid geometry and advanced algebra/ trigonometry in high school. Going to collage we learned higher math such as that used in physics and engineering classes. Regards, retired mechanical engineer (PE), physicist, astronomer and higher mathematics. And yes, I am a Caucasian.
110
All numbers are equal. So how can Maths be racist?
50
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, Douglas Adams
60
Douglass Adams was a genius writer, the whole book is a giant satire on many things, including the big bang theory.
30
Sorry to quibble, Marx was German, not Russian. Do svidanje, John.
20
Slightly O/T, but an expose of mad incompetent and it appears corrupt socialist’s on an economy wrecking spree. Maybe some of our US friends would like to say whether this is accurate.
https://www.pickeringpost.com/howellwoltz/13274/california-screaming-from-golden-state-to-the-new-venezuela/
40
Those accomplished in Maths must be bright,
To attain such skills and insight,
Have their science now painted,
As racist and tainted,
By wokeists, because they are white.
80
How awful! When did those evil white people take the black folks’ maths away?
IfDoes this mean black people have been emathsculated?
I’ll get me coat.
70
And look where the “Irish hand grenade” joke gets you
30
The Pirahã language has no numbers whatsoever.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/blogs/thinking/2008/07/the-language-without-numbers.html
Many African and other indigenous languages only have words for numbers up to three or so.
50
One, two, many is what we were told was the extent of the counting process of Australia’s but now that we’ve been told of their agriculture, architecture and what have you this story may metamorphose into a full blown science.
30
Even the Arabs who passed on mathematics to Europe had language limits. Their numbers limits was 1,000 which was infinity. So you get the story of the 1,001 Arabian nights.
One fascinating mathematical area was number theory where there we types of infinity. Is the infinite set of + and – numbers twice the size of just the size of the infinite number of + numbers? Is the set of real numbers bigger again? These are philosophic questions. Like if a tree falls in the forest, does the world get hotter?
20
One of the bones of contention when the National Curriculum was being discussed was whether or not to avoid teaching the seven times multiplication table because it is too difficult notwithstanding that seven appears in all the other tables so that the discussion was essentially about banning knowledge of the number forty-nine; and people affect to be surprised that Australia continues to move down in world education standard rankings.
60
it’s only a draft but…
Tracy Castro-Gill, Seattle’s ethnic studies director, told King 5 in Seattle, “The goal is to disrupt the status quo and do something different.”
they will certainly do that
30
Oh and by the way – this is content for an ethnic studies course, it is not going to be part of the Math curriculum . No need to thank me for doing the fact checking, I’ll gladly accept red thumbs
Here is the Board’s offical line
https://www.seattleschools.org/families_communities/committees/ethnic_studies_task_force
31
“No need to thank me for doing the fact checking, I’ll gladly accept red thumbs.”
It’s OK; normal people know how trolls get their kicks.
30
See – you can not accept that the story is fake
23
I’m feeling chilled, so I’ll feed the troll 🙂
How is this fake? At the very beginning, Jo says, “In a draft for its Math Ethnic Studies framework … “
30
Yes but the course they are developing is for Ethnic Studies. Did you not read my link. All the stuff about maths is related to that, they will not be changing the maths syllabus in any way. Mind you there are some school is the US that teach Biblical Maths (that is using the bible as the source of all mathematical thought), which is way more crazy.
30
The world was made in seven days is merely a figure of speech, probably closer to 700 million years.
20
“Yes but … ”
🙂 🙂 🙂
20
And under “Critical Shifts in Values, Knowledge, and Perspective” we get…
Oh dearie me.. one big anti-whiteness campaign.. !!
PF proven WRONG yet again !
Basic LACK OF COMPREHENSION..
DIDN’T READ his own links…
Or deliberately LIYING !!
/which is it PF !!
30
As long ago as 1996 Professor of mathematics Alan Sokal (1) at New York University showed the number phi known to mathematics since the time of the ancient Greeks was culturally determined.
“in this way the infinite-dimensional invariance group erodes the distinction between observer and observed; the Phi of Euclid and G of Newton, formerly thought to be constant and universal in their ineluctable historicity; and the putative observer becomes fatally de-centered from any epistemic link to a space-time point that can no longer be defined by geometry alone.”
In today terminology it means that men, women, trans etc each have their own private evaluation of phi to the 400th decimal place.
1. Sokal, Alan D. (1996), “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity”, Social Text, 46–47: 217–252
40
Ivor,
You didn’t make it clear That Sokal wrote that as a joke, firmly aimed at the ridiculous Post-Modernists.
Happily, they seem to be somewhat diminished in numbers these days.
40
Of course, it was a joke, I deliberately failed to do so in the hope it would be taken as a serious comment. At the time the editors of Social text and others took it very seriously. Hell knows no fury like a “post-Modernist” scorned.
The full story is told in “Intellectual Impostures,” Alan Sokal & Jean Bricmont, Profile Books 1998.
Only an expert in Quantum Theory, (which I am not) can really appreciate the full extent of the hoax.
30
‘ Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity’ I think that could be rated as a great conversation stopper for a diner party.
sarc aside. There is many conferences on said Quantum Gravity, Basically they still havent come to any definitive answers.
Many paradoxes arise. There is an experiment in special relativity called the Sagnac experiment, (to detect apparent change in velocity of light in a rotating system). The observed changes were within experiment (1915) Some physicist suggested to work requires an ‘ether’. Rotating systems often ‘dont play ball’ in relativity.
20
Oh dear… I calculated a hypotenuse yesterday so I could get a new building squared up. I had no idea that I would “oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”
Before I do anything like that again I will be sure to prepare a Computational Impact Assessment and submit it to the appropriate authority for review and approval.
60
I believe that John Macarthy, who is credited with inventing artificial intelligence, said ” she who does not do arithmetic is doomed to talk rubbish”.
30
The ancient Greeks did two things in mathematics for the first time:
* they came up with the idea of abstract number. Pure “three”, as what three sheep in a field, three boats in a harbour, etc, have in common. By doing this you can adapt the abstract mathematics to a huge variety of situations.
* the idea of step-by-step proof of a result from axioms. This idea is valuable for checking an intuition and for teaching the subject. It greatly facilitated mathematical development – as in Euclid’s Elements – because results could be built upon systematically. When this idea was shown to Chinese court mathematicians by the Jesuits a few hundred years ago, it impressed them very deeply indeed.
Here is Rochelle Gutierrez lecturing on her ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D266LYIigS0
At 40 minutes she shows a slide saying that one should “Refuse to privilege abstraction over context”. That undoes the first of these ancient Greek insights which is part of the definition of mathematics.
You can get away with this sort of bullshit (known as social studies) right up to the moment you have to tackle a real problem in the real world. So what is PI equal to in your system, Dr Gutierrez?
Here is her list of publications:
https://education.illinois.edu/faculty/rochelle-gutierrez#tab2
She has not published a single mathematics paper and she is employed by Illinois College of Education, not a mathematics faculty. Why is she described as a “math professor”?
Be easy on her. The problem is with a system that privileges people like her by paying them well to talk rubbish.
30
It would appear that The Seattle Public Schools Ethnic Studies Advisory Committee don’t realise that they are implying all the black kids in their area are as thick as two short planks and should bypass all the hard parts of schooling, or are they deliberately trying to hold those kids back from bettering themselves?
50
We are in a global cultural revolution and so far the rabidly irrational are sweeping the field. Fight back while you can. For years I thought that the climate madness was a symptom. I had no idea how bad the disease it is a symptom of could be.
60
Likewise. Deep State Disease.
40
Thanks. A great insight.
30
If those Seattle education bureaucrats succeed, US public education will continue its trend.
Take a look at the Michaela Community School in UK,
mcsbrent.co.uk
This school is in a poor area, the demographic is recent immigrant. Pictures of the children show the biggest group are black -Caribbean and African, there are girls in headscarves, many are of of Indian/Pakistan origin.
They do little if any social/ethnic studies and art. They concentrate on the core of education: Mathematics, English and literature, and one foreign language- French. By upper school the children speak better French that their demographic speaks English.
They have great staff and sound theories- the first is discipline, the children work. Children are not supposed to learn as a by-product of fun, they learn from strict concentration in class.
There is no lowering of standards for children with disadvantages, broken homes, single parents, of whom there are many, they are taught how to work harder.
The school has only been going for about 10 years, how is it doing? Excellently! Scores on national exams taken by school-leavers rank with the best.
70
“Michaela Community School in UK,”
Thanks for putting that up Lucky, it’s good to know that at least one School survives in the British Empire.
Not to mention the D word which has been wrongly portrayed as repression.
KK
30
Had a look online and have to say that it’s the most inspiring thing I’ve come across in a long while.
What’s interesting is the level of attack from social justice types who have never experienced the liberating effect of Self Discipline in a community that values kindness and consideration for others.
This school is paradoxically the ultimate safe space.
KK
KK
20
Thanks Lucky, I did wonder if Katharine would go ahead and start a school when she stopped blogging. So she has and by all appearances her teaching ideas are being vindicated and prove the general ideas of education from the establishment are wrong and should be changed.
40
There are just 10 types of people in the world – those who understand binary and those who don’t.
10
Binary? like Blak n Wite or SHADES of grey? A light is ON or OFF – so WHICH Binary do you refer to? – nae gonnae gan doon thae ither wyse o fit binaree is!
Just saying – but that’s the trouble with language nowadays.
10
‘fur guidness sake’ If maths = physics = natural processes = EDUCATION, Yes – E D U C A T I O N , is racist…. well then that’s it. Them n us etc what kind of bampots come out with this tripe? Hmmp OK then EDUCATION is racist 😉 Knowledge = power and all that. have started reading ‘about’ John Gaunt … Aye aye I see now. talk about biting the hand that feeds you or giving a little finger and they’ll take your hand – ALL springs to mind. What’s going on in this world. Has to be excess CO2 :-! How many trees were cut down to get that in print?
00
And white (meaning European-tradition-based) medicine, Dr Gutierrez? And white technology that runs the projector you use to talk your nonsense? Are you perhaps guilty of cultural appropriation if you use these things?
What we need, of course, is a few black, Asian and Chinese mathematicians to tell her what rubbish she is speaking.
10
If by maths they mean “Elementary” Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, I for one (and one is definitely a minority no matter the standard) felt oppressed. There was also a logic course offered in Texas (where we build H-bombs), using a British textbook that was an affront. Only many years afterward, reading the adventures of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, did it dawn on me the school was being used to push code-breaking techniques under the guise of “logic,” and foisting those horrors onto curious freshmen. Since the collapse of most nuclear-tipped communism, here’s hoping Lewis Carroll will be restored to the Cheshire Catbird’s seat.
00
‘“Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as White.”’
Sure. That’s why in high school they teach al-jabr.
20
🙂
00