They/Them Pronouns are Being Added to MO School District’s Math Curriculum Due to “Equity Considerations”

There’s nothin’ like more news about identity politics being valued over education to get your week started, ammirite?

I’m sorry to do it to you, but… it’s happening, so I might as well tell you about it. I’ve never been a huge believer in the whole “ignorance is bliss” thing.

On second thought… that may be a contributing factor in my overwhelming frustration with the world at large. Oh well…

From The College Fix:

A Missouri school district is updating its K-12 math curriculum to include “they/them” pronouns in the name of “equity considerations.”

The plural pronouns should be used along with traditional “he/she” pronouns in “word & contextual problems,” according to a Webster Groves School District “math program evaluation” presentation.

KCRG-TV reports Webster Groves Math Curriculum Coordinator Susan Bergman went over the changes at a school board meeting a week ago.

“A persistent myth within math education is that since ‘numbers are universal,’ math classrooms are objective and free of bias,” the presentation states. “Research shows clearly that any space where learning occurs is neither free of bias nor resistant to oppressive systems such as racism, sexism, classism or xenophobia.”

It adds that “scholars have demonstrated the ways that mathematics socialization and mathematics identity development are critical aspects to the learning and participation of students, particularly Black students.”

The district said it’s making the math updates based on the survey responses of over 2,100 students, 28 parents, and 75 staff members. Ten student “empathy” interviews also were considered.

One of the “next steps” Webster Groves plans to take is to meet with the district’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) director and work with Math314 regarding teacher inservices on equity.

According to Washington University in St. Louis’s Math314 Achieving Equity Series, “equity-based” teaching practices (which come from this book) include “leveraging multiple mathematical competencies,” “affirming mathematics learners’ identities” and “challenging spaces of marginality.”

The Webster Groves Board unanimously approved the math changes.

Maybe I’m just stating the obvious here, but shouldn’t we… oh, I don’t know… make sure the kids can actually solve the problem before we play with the wording? Because our education numbers are absolute sh*t. Math and reading proficiency is almost non-existent in major blue cities.

I don’t think it’s going to make a kid feel “seen” if they get a word problem that reads about Dylan having two nuts, giving both away to Nancy, and asking how many “they” have now… Kids usually aren’t as clever as they get credit for. They probably wouldn’t understand the joke I just made, or that Dylan didn’t even have to do that to be considered a “woman.” All this is gonna do is further weaken their grammatical abilities for their English classes.

How about we go back to making sure the kids can do the work before we introduce more bullsh*t they’re not gonna understand? Let’s do it for the children…