Ontario decides math is racist
Hey, can I show you something. This is Canadaâs national team in the âMath Olympicsâ. They're smart kids:
  ⢠Thomas Guo [Markham, ON]
  ⢠Michael Li [Toronto, ON],
  ⢠Eric Shen [Toronto, ON],
  ⢠Zixiang Zhou [London, ON],
  ⢠David Tang [Toronto, ON],
  ⢠Edgar Wang [Westmount, QC]
Hereâs a team that was specifically for girls â to get young women into math, it is more diverse:
- Anna Krokhine
- Elaine Liu
- Jennifer Wang
- Amelie Zhou
Iâve checked other years too. The demographics are about the same. Can I say it? Itâs mainly Chinese kids. I mean, thatâs just a fact. Why?
I have some theories, none of which are racist. A lot of these kids come from immigrant families, who take a very keen interest in their kidsâ education, who came to Canada for opportunity and theyâre not going to let their kids just slough off. No genders studies or vegetarian studies for them, no just playing video games and smoking pot. Study, study study.
So I think thatâs part of it. I think another one, thatâs related, is if you immigrate to Canada, maybe English isnât your first language, so perhaps math is something that you can excel at, no matter what your native tongue is.
And a related answer is: math is not subjective. You either know the answer to a math question or you donât; thereâs no wiggle room, thereâs no favouritism. Itâs a meritocracy. Other things in life arenât â theyâre who you know, not what you know.
Does anyone believe Justin Trudeau would be prime minister now if he didnât have the luck of being Pierre Trudeauâs son? Math doesnât work that way â you know it or you donât.
So those are three theories as to why Canadaâs math teams are overwhelmingly Asian. Frankly, Iâll tell you that out of ethnic pride I had hoped to see a Jew on there, but I guess it wasnât to be.
This does cause some policy issues in places that care about race-based outcomes â like universities.
So whether this is nurture or nature, itâs happening â Asian kids are great at math and science. So if youâre a school that insists on racial proportions in the name of affirmative action or whatever youâre calling it now, youâre going to have to discriminate against Asians. It happens like crazy in elite schools â California is the worst. They explicitly penalize Asian kids. You know, they used to do that to Jews, about 70 years ago â they limited the number of Jewish kids who were admitted to McGillâs med schools and law schools, you know. Now theyâre doing it to Asians.
My point is: math isnât just not racist. Math is anti-racist. Math is where you go for a refuge from racism. Because math doesnât care if youâre black or white or Asian or Jewish or gentile or whatever. Itâs a meritocracy.
So imagine saying that math is racist. Well, if that idea is new to you, you havenât been paying attention. Focusing on the correct answer in maths âis racistâ.
Thatâs the theory. Itâs not just some crackpot pundit. Itâs part of a massive program, bankrolled in part by Bill Gates, by the way, to racialize math instruction. Hereâs how the Times-Union describes it:
Objectivity is particularly toxic, and practices that perpetuate and reinforce objectivity must be dismantled. Focusing on the right answer can lead to underdeveloped reasoning skills and a failure to grasp the complexities of math. Consistent with this, perfectionism is to be dismantled as it also places too much value on getting it right. The notion that new learning comes from the teacher is a paternalistic, power-hoarding method to perpetuate white supremacy.
You know, let me stop for a moment to remind you why math is important. Not for everyone, I acknowledge. I mean, if most people donât know math, the worse that can happen is they donât know how to live within a budget, or how to do their taxes, or they get bamboozled by some payment plans, or donât understand compound interest or how much they really pay on a credit card.
But if youâre trying to be excellent in math, like the math Olympians, or not even that great, but just really good, so you get into engineering and architecture or something like that, if you get it wrong, you could have a high-rise fall down. Or a bridge fall down.
In fact, thatâs the story behind the iron ring that engineers wear â itâs made from the steel of a bridge that fell down because of bad math.
Itâs like an airline pilot or a brain surgeon. You want the best person, no matter if theyâre male or female or whatever their race. Please donât mess around with merit there, OK?
Which brings me to the atrocious Government of Ontario. We already know they donât really care about schools â they are the last jurisdiction in Canada, I believe, to still ban children from going to schools, using the pandemic as the excuse. Seriously. Theyâre on Zoom all day. No schools. No kids sports. And itâs not even certain that it wonât end in September. Kids, who have the lowest mortality rate for this virus, are being punished by the lockdown itself and the biggest childrenâs hospital in Ontario says itâs causing an epidemic of depression and suicide, but the Ontario âconservativesâ donât give a damn.
So really, what Iâm about to show you shouldnât come as a surprise.
So hereâs the Ontario math curriculum for Grade 9.Â
You know youâre in trouble when the word algebra appears just once, but human rights appears five times. I checked.
Human Rights, Equity, and Inclusive Education in Mathematics
Research indicates that there are groups of students (for example, Indigenous students, Black students, students experiencing homelessness, students living in poverty, students with LGBTQ+ identities, and students with special education needs and disabilities) who continue to experience systemic barriers to accessing high-level instruction in and support with learning mathematics.
Let me just stop for a moment. Are they saying gay people are bad at math?
Why are we talking about this?
Why are we defining entire racial and demographic groups as victims? This is math, people. Students bring abundant cultural knowledges, experiences, and competencies into mathematical learning.
OK, whatâs that got to do with algebra, or the Pythagorian theorem, or long division, or fractions?
In mathematics classrooms, teachers also provide opportunities for cross-curricular learning and for teaching about human rights. To create anti-racist, anti-discriminatory learning environments, all educators must be committed to equity and inclusion and to upholding and promoting the human rights of every learner.
Hey guys? Sorry to interrupt. I think I might have found our problem here. I think I might have found out why all these âvictimâ groups are doing poorly it math. I think itâs because weâre not teaching them math.
Challenging Eurocentric ideas about learning mathematics is key to a CRRP approach. In an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory environment, teachers know that there is more than one way to develop a solution, and students are exposed to multiple ways of knowing and encouraged to explore multiple ways of finding answers.
Iâm going to send all those Chinese kids a stern letter â for them to stop using Eurocentric ideas about math.
Put aside all the B.S. language for a moment. This is real:Â
⢠An equitable mathematics curriculum recognizes that mathematics can be subjective.
Mathematics is often positioned as an objective and pure discipline. However, the content and the context in which it is taught, the mathematicians who are celebrated, and the importance that is placed upon mathematics by society are subjective. Mathematics has been used to normalize racism and marginalization of non-Eurocentric mathematical knowledges, and a decolonial, anti-racist approach to mathematics education makes visible its historical roots and social constructions. The Ontario Grade 9 mathematics curriculum emphasizes the need to recognize and challenge systems of power and privilege, both inside and outside the classroom, in order to eliminate systemic barriers and to serve students belonging to groups that have been historically disadvantaged and underserved in mathematics education.
I donât know why theyâre doing this. One answer â for real â is anti-Asian racism. Stop the kids who keep getting the right answers from winning.
Another reason is: itâs easier for teachers. Itâs easier to teach this political B.S. than to teach calculus. And easier to grade â you just hand out marks based on feelings, not achievement.
Yeah, can you do me a favour? If any graduate from this curriculum wants to design a bridge or a high-rise, stop them.
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