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Missouri School District Adds ‘They/Them’ Pronouns to Math Curriculum

Missouri School District Adds ‘They/Them’ Pronouns to Math Curriculum

“A persistent myth within math education is that since ‘numbers are universal,’ math classrooms are objective and free of bias”

The left is determined to embed their ideology in pretty much everything.

The College Fix reports:

School district adds ‘they/them’ pronouns to its MATH curriculum

A Missouri school district is updating its K-12 math curriculum to include “they/them” pronouns in the name of “equity considerations.”

The plural pronouns should be used along with traditional “he/she” pronouns in “word & contextual problems,” according to a Webster Groves School District “math program evaluation” presentation.

KCRG-TV reports Webster Groves Math Curriculum Coordinator Susan Bergman went over the changes at a school board meeting a week ago.

Bergman (pictured) said use of the pronouns will “help students develop their ‘mathematical identities’” and “encourage them to ‘see the beauty, joy, and connectedness of mathematics as a way to see, make sense of and change our world.’”

“A persistent myth within math education is that since ‘numbers are universal,’ math classrooms are objective and free of bias,” the presentation states. “Research shows clearly that any space where learning occurs is neither free of bias nor resistant to oppressive systems such as racism, sexism, classism or xenophobia.”

It adds that “scholars have demonstrated the ways that mathematics socialization and mathematics identity development are critical aspects to the learning and participation of students, particularly Black students.”

The district said it’s making the math updates based on the survey responses of over 2,100 students, 28 parents, and 75 staff members. Ten student “empathy” interviews also were considered.

One of the “next steps” Webster Groves plans to take is to meet with the district’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) director and work with Math314 regarding teacher inservices on equity.

According to Washington University in St. Louis’s Math314 Achieving Equity Series, “equity-based” teaching practices (which come from this book) include “leveraging multiple mathematical competencies,” “affirming mathematics learners’ identities” and “challenging spaces of marginality.”

The Webster Groves Board unanimously approved the math changes.

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Comments

You’d think that some publisher would figure out that there’s a market for traditional curricula rather than rushing to destroy the quality of the content.

Now there are four properties: associative, commutative, transitive, and transtransitive.

George_Kaplan | April 22, 2023 at 9:53 pm

They and them are plurals so refer to 2+ things or people. The answer to theythem questions will thus be indeterminate unless particular ideology is ascribed to. Will multiple correct answers be permitted, or will this become an ideological passfail test?

    To illustrate:
    Each one of two children saw a different car. How many cars in total did They see?
    1) 2 Incorrect
    2) 1 Incorrect
    3) Not enough info supplied, as one of the children might be non-binary and prefers the pronoun They. Correct

    henrybowman in reply to George_Kaplan. | April 23, 2023 at 10:53 pm

    Tests are racist so there won’t be any.