The Student Room Group
is it 04/01 ?
Reply 3
Original post by Andrew97
This has to be a joke.

I was hoping so too until I clicked on Seattle's official education site:

https://www.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/public/socialstudies/pubdocs/Math%20SDS%20ES%20Framework.pdf
Reply 4
So everyone's clear, this is part of an "Ethnic Studies" curriculum which is separate to other lessons including maths. I'm guessing in that class they ask similar questions related to other subjects as well.

I disagree that they are "corrupting math".

EDIT: what I said above may not be true. See below.
(edited 4 years ago)
Reply 5
Original post by Sir Cumference
So everyone's clear, this is part of an "Ethnic Studies" curriculum which is separate to other lessons including maths. I'm guessing in that class they ask similar questions related to other subjects as well.

I disagree that they are "corrupting math".

Actually, the aim of this framework is to be integrated and not "separate to other lessons".

https://iamaneducator.com/2018/05/22/ethnic-studies-in-seattle-a-look-inside-the-classrooms-of-antiracist-educators/

"At Orca K-8, students are creating connections across disciplines as Ethnic Studies is integrated in a variety of subjects."
I don't see what the big deal is - these seem like fairly common questions in philosophy and educational theory. It appears to be part of a framework for an ethnography class (not maths) so it's clearly not going to replace geometry or algebra in the maths curriculum. The engineers of tomorrow won't be skipping mechanics in order to learn how to verify truth. Even if they did, the number of famous mathematicians who were also philosophers is huge.

Nothing to see here, nothing to froth over - unless you get a kick out of knee-jerk anti-intellectualism, that is.

At the end of the day I trust educators more than a cryptocurrency guy on Twitter who advocates homeschooling startups(!!!) as a solution.
Reply 7
Original post by Ascend
Actually, the aim of this framework is to be integrated and not "separate to other lessons".

https://iamaneducator.com/2018/05/22/ethnic-studies-in-seattle-a-look-inside-the-classrooms-of-antiracist-educators/

"At Orca K-8, students are creating connections across disciplines as Ethnic Studies is integrated in a variety of subjects."

What I mean is that students won't be going to maths class and starting with algebra and then moving on to ethnic studies. I'm no expert on Seattle education but it was my understanding that this was the case. I don't think that the quote your provided necessarily means that it will be taught alongside other subjects.

If you know for sure that this is being taught alongside other subjects then please let us know. I'll edit my last post to make it clear that what I said may not be true.
Reply 8
Original post by Sir Cumference
I don't think that the quote your provided necessarily means that it will be taught alongside other subjects.

I didn't think "Ethnic Studies is integrated in a variety of subjects" would be so confusing. Maybe the full paragraph should make it clear:

"At Orca K-8, students are creating connections across disciplines as Ethnic Studies is integrated in a variety of subjects. Science educator, Zelda Padmananbhan lead her class through a lesson on cells through a discussion of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research, sourced from Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who did not grant permission for her cells to be used. Through a unique opportunity, students examined the official HeLa cells, read literature and watched portions of a movie about Lacks’ life."
i feel sad when i have to divide or subtract. those operations are, like, negative and life-denying ?

:emo:
Reply 10
Original post by Democracy
It appears to be part of a framework for an ethnography class (not maths) so it's clearly not going to replace geometry or algebra in the maths curriculum.

See the posts above and below yours. The idea is to integrate ethnic studies with other subjects, as the example of the science teacher's class shows.

There is of course no problem in teaching ethnic studies as part of social science - in fact, I think it is much needed. The issue is with politicising other sciences and maths classes through the narrow lens of cultural relativism.
Reply 11
Original post by Ascend
I didn't think "Ethnic Studies is integrated in a variety of subjects" would be so confusing. Maybe the full paragraph should make it clear:

"At Orca K-8, students are creating connections across disciplines as Ethnic Studies is integrated in a variety of subjects. Science educator, Zelda Padmananbhan lead her class through a lesson on cells through a discussion of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research, sourced from Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who did not grant permission for her cells to be used. Through a unique opportunity, students examined the official HeLa cells, read literature and watched portions of a movie about Lacks’ life."

No it's not clear if this is as part of Biology lessons or separate just in Ethnic Studies classes. When I read "Ethnic Studies is integrated in a variety of subjects", I thought they were just saying that a variety of subjects (like maths and biology) can be considered within Ethnic Studies. Your post has made be question this though. I'm honestly not being stubborn and you could be right, but I'm still not sure how this school district has organised the curriculum.
Original post by the bear
i feel sad when i have to divide or subtract. those operations are, like, negative and life-denying ?

:emo:

Your safe space is being violated

Simply refuse to do it and if anyone tells you it doesn't give the right answer, challenge their authority to decide right answers from wrong answers and demand they give you gold stars anyway or you'll report them for oppression :yep:
Original post by Ascend
See the posts above and below yours. The idea is to integrate ethnic studies with other subjects, as the example of the science teacher's class shows.

There is of course no problem in teaching ethnic studies as part of social science - in fact, I think it is much needed. The issue is with politicising other sciences and maths classes through the narrow lens of cultural relativism.

I don't see it as cultural relativism or politicisation. The example you quoted re HeLa - that's about gaining appropriate consent which is a basic cornerstone of ethics in experimentation. I think the time, place and ethnicity influenced that particular case so I don't see why it shouldn't be taught as part of the science curriculum. It's not "cultural relativism" to advocate gaining appropriate consent.

I don't see how this detracts from science or maths teaching and I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that it does. If anything, it's likely to lead to more educated scientists and mathematicians which is obviously a good thing.

The person you've screenshotted is clearly not an intellectual and the homeschooling thing is bat**** crazy. Which makes this thread come across as very clickbaity.
Reply 15
Original post by Democracy
I don't see what the big deal is - these seem like fairly common questions in philosophy and educational theory. It appears to be part of a framework for an ethnography class (not maths) so it's clearly not going to replace geometry or algebra in the maths curriculum. The engineers of tomorrow won't be skipping mechanics in order to learn how to verify truth. Even if they did, the number of famous mathematicians who were also philosophers is huge.

Nothing to see here, nothing to froth over - unless you get a kick out of knee-jerk anti-intellectualism, that is.

At the end of the day I trust educators more than a cryptocurrency guy on Twitter who advocates homeschooling startups(!!!) as a solution.

Yeah, seems like standard pedagogy to me, too. It's about reflecting on how the whole thing fits together and giving a holistic view about how maths etc works. When they ask 'who can say whether an answer is right?' what they are getting at is anybody that can follow and apply the procedure can say that an answer is right, i.e. in principle everybody: a position anticipated by the question directly after.
Reply 16
Original post by Democracy
I don't see it as cultural relativism or politicisation. The example you quoted re HeLa - that's about gaining appropriate consent which is a basic cornerstone of ethics in experimentation. I think the time, place and ethnicity influenced that particular case so I don't see why it shouldn't be taught as part of the science curriculum. It's not "cultural relativism" to advocate gaining appropriate consent.

I don't see how this detracts from science or maths teaching and I haven't seen any evidence to suggest that it does. If anything, it's likely to lead to more educated scientists and mathematicians which is obviously a good thing.

The example of Henrietta Lacks is not focused on gaining appropriate consent. This is an ethnic studies initiative, not an ethics discourse. The focus of this integration will be on ethnicity across the different subjects.

And of course it's politicising the curriculum by emphasising ethnicity instead of highlighting the (ironically) universal nature of science and mathematics. These are the closest human endeavours to any objective and universal truths. For social justice warriors, you'd think we can celebrate this unifying aspect of it instead of dividing it along ethnic lines.

The person you've screenshotted is clearly not an intellectual and the homeschooling thing is bat**** crazy. Which makes this thread come across as very clickbaity.

I don't know why you're obsessed with that random messenger that you seem to know more about than me but the focus here is on trying to make primary school children ask questions like "How can we change mathematics from individualistic to collective thinking?" and "Who gets to say if an answer is right?"!

Of course it's "clickbaity" because this is in itself bat**** crazy.
Original post by Ascend
The example of Henrietta Lacks is not focused on gaining appropriate consent. This is an ethnic studies initiative, not an ethics discourse. The focus of this integration will be on ethnicity across the different subjects.

And of course it's politicising the curriculum by emphasising ethnicity instead of highlighting the (ironically) universal nature of science and mathematics. These are the closest human endeavours to any objective and universal truths. For social justice warriors, you'd think we can celebrate this unifying aspect of it instead of dividing it along ethnic lines.


I don't know why you're obsessed with that random messenger that you seem to know more about than me but the focus here is on trying to make primary school children ask questions like "How can we change mathematics from individualistic to collective thinking?" and "Who gets to say if an answer is right?"!

Of course it's "clickbaity" because this is in itself bat**** crazy.


I think you're living in an ignorant bubble if you're seriously suggesting that social factors like ethnicity don't impact scientific practice and ethics. Science didn't developed in isolation to the rest of society. Ever heard of Tuskgee? Eugenics? Phrenology? Social attitudes to ethnicity have had a major impact on the history of science. Why should this impact not therefore be studied?

Science should always strive to be universal and objective but the history of science is filled with plenty of examples of racism, sexism, unethical practices and other things which highlight how non-universal academia can be. Denying this does not somehow elevate science and acknowledging it doesn't make you anti-scientific. Educating future scientists is how we can ensure it doesn't happen again.

The entire basis of knowledge expansion in science and mathematics is "collective thinking".
(edited 4 years ago)

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