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Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

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Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#91

Post by slowhand09 »

Bhilai wrote: post #15

The article is lacking in substance because it does not actually tell you what material in the math books was so egregious that the book deserved to be banned or may be state of Florida did not publish this information. Banning books seems to be the new battle ground for politicians, sigh.

"Banning books seems to be the new battle ground for politicians, sigh."

Writing textbooks for core subject areas, with material stirring controversy seems to be the new battleground for educators.

Ever notice how someone can create a hostile environment without doing anything hostile? Or someone can push right to edge, then back off, claiming "not my intent".

There is an analogous concept in physical therapy. You move a body part as far as you can, to test range of motion and limits. Then try it again, except the therapist assists you to move it farther, even supporting it while you rest a moment. Then you repeat the test, almost always going significantly farther.

You move the bar, the limit, the acceptable range of motion, or speech, or teaching social justice under the guise of core math.

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#92

Post by bitshiftfaced »

FunnyLookinHat wrote: post #31
muhehe wrote: post #4

Can someone simply explain what is this critical race theory?

I like this definition. > Simply put, critical race theory states that U.S. social institutions (e.g., the criminal justice system, education system, labor market, housing market, and healthcare system) are laced with racism embedded in laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that lead to differential outcomes by race. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/07/02/why-are-sta... Put another way, it's allowing the…

> it's allowing the possibility that systems themselves can be racist.

It's much too weak a phrasing to say that it only "allows for the possibility." Its core doctrine is that 1) the idea of race itself is a social construct used to oppress/exploit, and 2) laws and institutions are racist and function to create and maintain inequalities.

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#93

Post by klyrs »

capableweb wrote: post #14
muhehe wrote: post #4

Can someone simply explain what is this critical race theory?

The wikipedia definition seems to match with my own understanding of what it is: > cross-disciplinary intellectual and social movement of civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to examine the intersection of race, society, and law In the country where I was brought up that was just part of history/society classes instead of a separate thing, but racial tensions in the US seems more extreme than anywhere else so…

> so maybe that's why it exists as a separate thing?

In the same way that number theory is its own thing, and algebra is its own thing, and you might take separate classes on each; algebraic number theory is its own thing and you probably wouldn't take a class on it before grad school.

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#94

Post by chmod600 »

Volundr wrote: post #57
chmod600 wrote: post #26

With so little information it's not clear what we can discuss.

Really? We can't discuss the fact that our government is making decisions about what teachers can and can't teach children, and have decided they can keep the entire process, including their decisions secret from us? That feels like enough to discuss to me.

If we wanted to discuss that topic, is this article the right place to start?

What is Florida's process? How does it differ from other states? What is the role of human discretion? What are some other examples of how this process plays out?

We are left to guess. Or maybe some comments here will offer the information. Either way, a bad, clickbait article.

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#95

Post by JaimeThompson »

From Rep. Anna V. Eskamani / Florida elected representative.

Books accepted https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5574/urlt/2122MathA...

Books rejected https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5574/urlt/2021-22-S...

https://twitter.com/AnnaForFlorida/status/151603980914330009...

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#96

Post by bell-cot »

It might be worth recalling Richard Feynman's old story about being part of the California textbook selection process - a process so profoundly dysfunctional and corrupt that Dr. Feynman may have been the only member of the evaluation committee who actually read a meaningful percentage of the textbooks which they were passing judgement on.

(No, I see nothing in NPR's story to suggest that they compared Florida's stated reasons for rejecting various textbooks with the actual contents of the textbooks.)

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#97

Post by krapp »

bediger4000 wrote: post #59
JaimeThompson wrote: post #54

Soon they will loop back around to banning / modifying the teaching of evolutionary theory like some tried in the recent past because of "religious" reasons.

I have a suspicion that banning teaching evolution is the ultimate goal here. Or maybe just getting rid of public schools altogether, but leaving in place a mandate for children to get an 8th grade education. Religious schooling will always be cheaper, since we don't tax churches, so all the voucher money will go to schools that teach creationism.

The ultimate goal is to entrench white christian conservative power in the face of impending demographic minority and progressive political inter-generational drift. Demonizing and suppressing black scholarship and whitewashing historical and cultural narratives through education is one means to that end.

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#98

Post by seanicus »

mardifoufs wrote: post #78
bediger4000 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a suspicion that banning teaching evolution is the ultimate goal here. Or maybe just getting rid of public schools altogether, but leaving in place a mandate for children to get an 8th grade education. Religious schooling will always be cheaper, since we don't tax churches, so all the voucher money will go to schools that teach creationism.

I think that's just a variant of the slippery slope fallacy. There's nothing related to religion here, and they have not mentioned anything about evolution.

“Our desire is to … confront the culture in which we all live today in ways which will continue to advance God’s kingdom, not to stay in our own safe territories,” Betsy DeVos said.

Cited from this article: https://religionnews.com/2017/02/06/5-faith-facts-betsy-devo...

Are you so far inside your bubble that you can't connect conservative values aligned to religious thinking to the conservative push to defund public education benefitting private parochial schools?

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#99

Post by [deleted] »

JaimeThompson wrote: post #86
xwdv wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, blue state liberal democrats are clamoring to move to Florida. New Yorkers and Californians trying to escape their failed states with outrageous taxes, is it any wonder then that states like Florida and Texas are purposely trying to seem as unattractive as possible to these people. Way too many people in Florida these days.

"Texas had a population in 2017 of 28.32 million. On a per capita basis then, the percent of people leaving Texas was 0.016. California lost just over 661,000 people to domestic migration in the 12 months ended in July 2017. Given California’s population in 2017 of 39.4 million, the per capita basis of people leaving California was 0.016, approximately the same rate as in Texas." https://drgregmaguire.org/2020/02/06/…

[deleted]

Re: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some

#100

Post by JaimeThompson »

mardifoufs wrote: post #73
mezcaliente wrote: post #62

I found more information on the Florida Dept. of Education site: https://www.fldoe.org/academics/standards/instructional-mate... This appears to be the list of the 132 books submitted for review: https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5574/urlt/2021-22-S... And this I believe is the list of books that were approved: https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5574/urlt/2122MathA...

Wait so why is everyone saying that they have not published the book list? Am I missing something?

Because they only made the lists available a few hours ago instead of days ago when they released the notice.
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