Critical race theory

[JaneV2.0]

Here is an article in the NYT today with 21 examples of the content in question. I think the comments are also interesting. Certainly not straight up liberal progressive opinions, but a diversity of thinking in terms of the place that "softer" values like self-esteem and self-awareness have in math education. Frankly, I could have used a lot more self-esteem when I was struggling with algebra.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/u...textbooks.html

Aack! I had forgotten how pervasive ed school policies had spread their tentacles into the curriculum. (Ed School Follies appalled me years ago). I don't want a bunch of touchy-feely crap filling the math texts my exorbitant taxes are paying for.

“A math biography is a way of helping kids,” Professor Jones said. “There is a fair amount of evidence that indicates that if you can surface your uncertainty and anxiety about something, it’s easier to grapple with it and manage it.”

Teachers could read the biographies to learn which students need extra support, she added.

Some McGraw Hill pages include social-emotional prompts that have little to do with the math problems, such as this example below from a fifth-grade book. Beneath an ordinary math problem, students are asked, “How can you understand your feelings?” --NYT article

[bae]

The problem I have with these specific examples, and with nearly every other math textbook I have examined over the past 20 years, has nothing to do with any perceived "wokeness" of the text. Rather, it's that the textbook itself is poor - dreadful layout, overly-busy graphics design, examples poorly chosen (I mean, look at the chart in that example there, it doesn't originate at '0', rather it compresses the first part of the data which poorly conveys the data... Read your Tufte, writers!). Etc.

There's no excuse for designing publications so poorly. (Well, unless your intent is to have lots of shiny busy colorful pages to attract textbook reviewers with no subject-matter knowledge...)

[catherine]

Read your Tufte, writers!). Etc.

Wow! You know Tufte? He has definitely influenced the way I present data in my presentations. I took one of his workshops.

[JaneV2.0]

The problem I have with these specific examples, and with nearly every other math textbook I have examined over the past 20 years, has nothing to do with any perceived "wokeness" of the text. Rather, it's that the textbook itself is poor - dreadful layout, overly-busy graphics design, examples poorly chosen (I mean, look at the chart in that example there, it doesn't originate at '0', rather it compresses the first part of the data which poorly conveys the data... Read your Tufte, writers!). Etc.

There's no excuse for designing publications so poorly. (Well, unless your intent is to have lots of shiny busy colorful pages to attract textbook reviewers with no subject-matter knowledge...)

I noticed that, too. Cutesy cartoons and badly-designed pages--most of it unnecessary.
You jogged my memory; Tufte was a fixture in some of my classes.