Florida rejects math books containing CRT

[Valletta]

The FDOE’s announcement comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken a lead role nationally in Republican efforts to aggressively push back against liberal cultural values and “woke indoctrination.”
Florida DOE rejects 54 math books due to critical race theory content

 

[disciple Clint]

The FDOE’s announcement comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken a lead role nationally in Republican efforts to aggressively push back against liberal cultural values and “woke indoctrination.”
Florida DOE rejects 54 math books due to critical race theory content

This article is a generalized broad brush, the books were rejected for a variety of reasons, some of which may have been CRT or may not have been, read the article.

 

[Bradskii]

This article is a generalized broad brush, the books were rejected for a variety of reasons, some of which may have been CRT or may not have been, read the article.

I agree. Without a list of any books banned and what they contain that caused them to be banned, this is something that nobody can comment on.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Florida claims it's being transparent, but they have not revealed the actual titles of books, or any of the objectionable content. The most I've seen is sort of a percentage breakdown that ~20% of the books were rejected for CRT content.

 

[Yttrium]

Any reference to CRT in a math textbook is inappropriate.

Having said that, I want to see those references from the banned books, because I'm highly skeptical of their existence.

 

[Desk trauma]

Surprised they haven’t banned all the ones using Arabic numerals.

 

[The IbanezerScrooge]

Any reference to CRT in a math textbook is inappropriate.

Having said that, I want to see those references from the banned books, because I'm highly skeptical of their existence.

Without seeing what the books actually contained we can't know, but I can almost guarantee none of them "referenced" CRT, since that would make no sense whatsoever. It's likely just that some lone word problem talked about how many apples little Aaliyah had instead of little Susie.

 

[DaisyDay]

There was also a complaint that the offending books contained "Common Core" stuff - which I would certainly think so. Common Core was not an ideology, it was not a federal initiative, but it was a set of knowledge standards, by grade, agreed upon by states' governors. The idea, a good one imo, was to see what teaching methods had the best results - which can only be compared if there is a common standard.

 

[Ponderous Curmudgeon]

There was also a complaint that the offending books contained "Common Core" stuff - which I would certainly think so. Common Core was not an ideology, it was not a federal initiative, but it was a set of knowledge standards, by grade, agreed upon by states' governors. The idea, a good one imo, was to see what teaching methods had the best results - which can only be compared if there is a common standard.

Florida was one of 45 states that signed on to common core, but now they are going back to a basics approach.
Back-to-basics approach to math
The B.E.S.T. Standards do away with what Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran calls “crazy math.” He’s referring to the Common Core’s emphasis on strategies and logic, which often confused parents trying to help their kids at home. Instead, the new math curriculum will balance skills and concepts. It will also stress basic whole number arithmetic and getting the correct answer. B.E.S.T. also adds a financial literacy course at the high school level.

Looks to me like fractions and learning how to set up problems is being ditched for here is how you do this problem and here are 10 more just like it because actually doing math at their kid's level was confusing to many parents.

Oh Floriduh

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Florida was one of 45 states that signed on to common core, but now they are going back to a basics approach.
Back-to-basics approach to math
The B.E.S.T. Standards do away with what Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran calls “crazy math.” He’s referring to the Common Core’s emphasis on strategies and logic, which often confused parents trying to help their kids at home. Instead, the new math curriculum will balance skills and concepts. It will also stress basic whole number arithmetic and getting the correct answer. B.E.S.T. also adds a financial literacy course at the high school level.

Looks to me like fractions and learning how to set up problems is being ditched for here is how you do this problem and here are 10 more just like it because actually doing math at their kid's level was confusing to many parents.

Oh Floriduh

On the other hand, having every one in Florida on the same 6th grade level is an improvement.

 

[DaisyDay]

On the other hand, having every one in Florida on the same 6th grade level is an improvement.

But what, exactly, is the 6th grade level?

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Florida claims it's being transparent, but they have not revealed the actual titles of books, or any of the objectionable content. The most I've seen is sort of a percentage breakdown that ~20% of the books were rejected for CRT content.

Yeah, until there's some sort of books list provided, it's tough to comment one way or the other.

However, I will definitively say, the onus should always be on the side doing the banning/restricting to "show their work" to use a math pun.

Simply saying "we're banning a list of books" (to get a cheap pop from the base), without actually providing titles seems a tad sketchy.

It's amazing how fluid the "parental rights in education" standards are in the eyes of some people. For a group of people who just said 2 months ago "I have a right to know the details of everything that's going on in my school district and want to have a say in everything you do (or don't) teach my kid", they're not asking very tough follow-up questions with regards to this.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The most we've seen so far is a not-textbook from not-Florida with some not-CRT, provided by DeSantis' press secretary.

While it's a pretty sad/cheap example of what happens when 'multidisciplinary' approaches to academics are imposed on math departments, the worksheet on Maya Angelou includes true information about her life (she was sexually assaulted by a relative). Although it may be hard for people to differentiate, a biography of Angelou is not CRT.

 

[iluvatar5150]

It's amazing how fluid the "parental rights in education" standards are in the eyes of some people. For a group of people who just said 2 months ago "I have a right to know the details of everything that's going on in my school district and want to have a say in everything you do (or don't) teach my kid", they're not asking very tough follow-up questions with regards to this.

For the authoritarian conservative, claims of rights and autonomy are nearly always a disingenuous justification for enshrining their own power.

 

[Yttrium]

The most we've seen so far is a not-textbook from not-Florida with some not-CRT, provided by DeSantis' press secretary.

While it's a pretty sad/cheap example of what happens when 'multidisciplinary' approaches to academics are imposed on math departments, the worksheet on Maya Angelou includes true information about her life (she was sexually assaulted by a relative). Although it may be hard for people to differentiate, a biography of Angelou is not CRT.

I saw that, and I have to say that mentioning a pimp and sexual assault are inappropriate for a math assignment. Still, it's not CRT, and it's not from one of the textbooks, so bringing it up seems like a deflection.

 

[Ponderous Curmudgeon]

I saw that, and I have to say that mentioning a pimp and sexual assault are inappropriate for a math assignment. Still, it's not CRT, and it's not from one of the textbooks, so bringing it up seems like a deflection.

Their real objection to the math textbooks is that they are mostly set up with common core principles in mind and Florida wants to go it's own way as has Texas. In the Texas case, their math standards are basically common core renamed, but Florida wants a whole different curriculum that ignores the last 30 years of math education research. Florida is big enough that many publishers will create a Florida only math book and maybe they will even make them happier by only using examples of white-bread Dick and Jane though Spot may be a bit much.

 

[durangodawood]

.... Although it may be hard for people to differentiate, a biography of Angelou is not CRT.

She wrote about the experience of being black in America. Thats CRT-adjacent enough for a good banning.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

While it's a pretty sad/cheap example of what happens when 'multidisciplinary' approaches to academics are imposed on math departments, the worksheet on Maya Angelou includes true information about her life (she was sexually assaulted by a relative). Although it may be hard for people to differentiate, a biography of Angelou is not CRT.

I would agree, a biography shouldn't constitute "CRT" to any sane person.

I think part of the problem stems from our current society's propensity for leveraging semantic overload (using one word or expression to define two different types of ideas).

It's something I've started referring to as "ideological gerrymandering", ...where both sides annex their more popular (or noble-sounding) ideas in with their unpopular ones, as a means of making them "criticism-proof", because if someone critiques the unpopular one, they can turn around and accuse them of opposing (or being apathetic to) the noble-sounding one.

Examples from the left would be things like "Black Lives Matter" and "Critical Race Theory"
Examples from the right would be things like "Religious Freedom" bills and "Parental Choice"

Semantically speaking, all of those are valid and non-controversial. However, both sides lump in a lot of controversial precepts and ideas under each of those four monikers.

An example I've used before to highlight this (that's not as politically polarizing as the aforementioned things) is PETA

"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"

Semantically, it's not controversial to say "people should treat animals more ethically than what we do". However, there's a good reason why so many people (many who may even be sympathetic to the semantically stated cause) have a negative reaction when they hear "PETA".

 

[durangodawood]

Black people should write about their lives like everybody else. But once they talk about what its like to be black in America, well thats just too radical. Kids might read it and develop an impression that not everyone has been or is treated equally under the law and culture.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Black people should write about their lives like everybody else. But once they talk about what its like to be black in America, well thats just too radical. Kids might read it and develop an impression that not everyone has been or is treated equally under the law and culture.

Remember kids, only white Christian conservatives are allowed to claim persecution.