Re: Social Justice Math

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Speaking of race and mathematics, apo is a saint for what he puts up with at the other place.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 9:55 AM
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1: I saw that, too. For some reason FB decided to display a post to everyone that shows Apo confronting a moron.

I wonder if their algorithm knows when it is promoting absurd political arguments.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 10:00 AM
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I rather prefer leaving politics out of math and science classes, even when it's politics I support. It invites distraction from the material and opens the door to all sorts of trouble.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 10:44 AM
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52 percent of all voters voted for Barack Obama. However, only 10 percent of the voters who understood that Barack Obama was actually born in Kenya and is a devout Muslim socialist voted for him, while 80 percent of voters who falsely believed he was an ordinary American like you and me voted for him. What percentage of American voters understand the truth about Barack Obama?


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:07 AM
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4: Bad question design! Are we supposed to assume that all 48% of the voters that did not vote for the Kenyan Muslim socialist, knew that he was a Kenyan Muslim socialist?

Anyway, heebie is going to have a separate thread on Tea Party Math.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:12 AM
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No one but bob understands the truth about Obama.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:12 AM
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6: Of course! I should have realized it was a trick question!


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:14 AM
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Two trains leave Omaha for Denver at the same time on parallel tracks. One of them is a Democrat boondoggle high speed rail train. The other one is carrying multimodal containers destined for Wal-Mart, where real Americans go to get the best deals on Chinese goods. At what point does a Hummer H3 overtake each train?


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:14 AM
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5: It's solvable as long as you assume everybody either knows or doesn't know the truth, with no middle ground.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:14 AM
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In principle it sounds terrible, but looking at their concrete recommendations, it doesn't sound bad. Though their examples seem less suitable for maths classes than for applied mathematics disciplines like economics or sociology. Do maths classes in the US use real world datasets much?


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:15 AM
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To elaborate on that, the maths classes I'm used to involve learning a concept, working through some examples, and then moving on, possibly to related concepts which build on that knowledge. The examples they give would seem to take an awful lot of time to cover one particular concept. They'd be good at illustrating how the high level concepts tie in to applications, but pretty poor at teaching the concepts themselves.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:19 AM
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9: Yes. I failed math again.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:27 AM
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Give Ted Cruz a few more months and there won't be any middle ground.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:29 AM
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This is one reason I have an absolute phobia about the concept of being a teacher. I know there's some number of students who will figure out that they should have hatred and scorn for me because of my beliefs and principles.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:38 AM
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I like Bob Moses, whom they quote, and these lottery curriculum resources seem useful, as do some of the ethnomathematics links.


Posted by: Thorn | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:49 AM
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Regardless of the merits of the cause, I think it would be a mistake for people to come away with the impression that their math class is trying to teach them what to think about social issues. It sets up a potentially oppositional dynamic that is not conducive to learning. For some classes this is necessary. Science is science regardless of what you think about God, and history is narrative which inherently has subjective elements. Putting it where it isn't necessary, though? Yeck.

I do like the financial ed part, though. A lot. I'm indifferent on "ethnomathematics."


Posted by: Trumwill | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 12:05 PM
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The financial ed angle is done all the time. That's not particularly innovative.

To make something like this work (in college, at least) you'd title the course appropriately so that no one felt like there was a bait and switch. It would clearly be an applied math course, not an algebra course taught through current events.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 12:20 PM
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I hate it when people want you to treat a sigma like an e.


Posted by: beamish | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 3:49 PM
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So why don't you man up and do something about it, beamish?


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 4:26 PM
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||Also, this is perfect.|>


Posted by: Robert Halfordo | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 4:27 PM
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Is there a point to having the students work through logic when the material is emotionally charged?

Sometimes, when I read some of the literature on motivated cognition, I refuse to answer the questions because I know my mind is not to be trusted. Actually, when I read a recent paper on motivated numeracy, I refused to answer also partly because I knew I had forgotten how to calculate Fisher's exact statistic. I knew that if I were to work it out, I would look at row and column suns.


Posted by: Robert | Link to this comment | 10-29-13 11:23 PM
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20 is fucking awesome. I like VU and Reed, but the reaction to his death made me hate everyone.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 10-30-13 4:09 AM
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To make something like this work (in college, at least) you'd title the course appropriately so that no one felt like there was a bait and switch.

Surely you wouldn't teach a course like this in college, though. These are all amazingly basic concepts.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 10-30-13 4:22 AM
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23: Ajay has obviously never attended high school in the U.S.A.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 10-30-13 4:44 AM
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20, 22: I see Pollack has recycled his Hitchens sthick for Lou Reed's death.

Not so much fucking brilliant as fucking predictable to see Pollack do his me so contrary dance once again.


Posted by: Martin Wisse | Link to this comment | 10-31-13 12:13 AM
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OT: Statemenst of a Polish gynecologist and sexual health expert, who is the city of Bialystok's go to person on first response and determination of whether or not a rape took place:

"One has to distinguish between a rape where a woman was attacked and brutally beaten, and one where she had a drink with a guy and then acts surprised that a sexual act took place against her will"

"When the police bring me victims of rapes to treat or give my expert opinion, I tell you sir, that some of them are genuinely upset, and others not. It depends on their attitude.

Asked to explain he differentiated between women who are sexually active and have had multiple partners and 'young virgins from good Catholic homes'. He also cited the statistic that only ten percent of rapes are reported to the police as evidence that for many women it's no big deal.

These remarks caused an uproar, leading the good doctor to attempt some damage control to journalists:

"If a woman does not wish to have sex then she shouldn't meet with men. It's pretty simple. A man goes out on a date with a woman, he's thinking of sex. They have a beer, a glass of wine, he embraces her, she kisses him. THen she resists. So he takes her, he takes her by force. Of course he does"

Wtf is wrong with people?

Seksuolog o gwałcie: "Jeśli kobieta nie chce współżyć, to nie spotyka się z mężczyznami"


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 10-31-13 6:06 AM
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