Showing Work In Math Class Is Racist, Claims Oregon Dept. Of Education
School administrators in Oregon are telling teachers that asking students to show their work in math class is a form of “white supremacy.”
The Oregon Department of Education told educators to enroll in a course called “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction.” The 82-page instructional guide included in the course lists ways in which white supremacy is manifested in math classes.
“White supremacy culture infiltrates math classrooms in everyday teacher actions,” the guide reads. “Coupled with the beliefs that underlie these actions, they perpetuate educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.”
The instructional guide lists the following as alleged forms of white supremacy: asking students to show their work process, getting accurate answers, and grading students based on merit.
The guide claims that teachers who ask students to show their work are using a “crutch” to understand what students are thinking. Showing work allegedly reinforces “paternalism” and “worship of the written word.” Documentation and writing skills are allegedly white supremacist ideas.
Objectivity is also supposedly a form of white supremacy. The guide claims that distinguishing “right and wrong” answers is a racist tenet.
“The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so,” the guide reads. “Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity.”
Regarding word problems, not using “culturally relevant pedagogy” is allegedly a form of white supremacy. The guide explains that it would be a good idea to tell students to “use Ankara fabric to teach mathematical concepts such as tessellations, fractions, area, percentages, etc.” Objects in word problems must have cultural significance, according to the guide.
Political ideologies are also being injected into math classes. The guide explicitly tells teachers to “identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.”
