Recent left-wing attempts to subvert maths curricula hold some awkward historical parallels
Mathematics is, stereotypically-speaking, supposed to be the most ideologically, culturally and morally impartial of all subjects under the sun. Yes, us fallen humans can use maths to do bad things – to calculate how much explosive to add to a bomb, say – but numbers themselves are neutral. Certainly, I have yet to encounter a sexist fraction or a racist cone-section.
Yet in Britain, headlines were recently made when the QAA, a university standards (-lowering) body, released official guidance for mathematics courses, to the effect that “Values of EDI [Equality, Diversity, Inclusion – i.e. wokeness] should permeate the [maths] curriculum and every aspect of the learning experience to ensure the diverse nature of society in all its forms is evident.”
One of the specific ways in which the QAA suggested this “essential” goal could be achieved was by professors shame-facedly informing their students that mathematics itself had frequently operated as a tool of white supremacy throughout its long and chequered past, even to the extent that “historically, some mathematicians have recorded racist or fascist views or connections to groups such as the Nazis.”
Well, this is true. Some obscure mathematicians were indeed committed Nazis, like Ludwig Bieberbach. But, likewise – and I find it difficult to believe this fact actually now needs to be stated – the vast majority of mathematicians throughout history were not Nazis at all. Doubtless some train-drivers, pig-farmers and stamp-collectors in 1930s Germany were fascists also. Next time they hop on public transport, eat a sausage or post a letter, do the general public really need to be piously reminded of this appalling fact lest they absent-mindedly allow another Führer to rise to power some dark day soon?
The whole piece is well worth reading as yet another reminder of how dogmatic and intolerant modern political ideologies have become. One litmus test for dogmatic ideology is the furtive determination to insert it into school lessons where it is not in itself relevant. It's one indicator that the orthodox climate narrative is one strand of a wider political ideology.
Religious extremists also subvert maths curricula to similar ends. In 2020, it emerged that UK aid money given to Palestine had been used to fund Islamist textbooks where nine-year-olds were challenged to calculate the number of martyred terrorists from various anti-Israeli uprisings down the years, accompanied by charming photographs of their funerals. That wokeists are increasingly acting similarly provides further evidence the whole movement is just a contemporary secular cult.
I used to quite happily teach in religious Catholic schools myself -- which critics may also deride as ideological indoctrination-factories -- but Catholic content there was strictly restricted to assemblies and religious education classes, not any other subjects. Maths lessons did not require children to calculate how many Vatican missionaries were required to convert the benighted heathen in Country X or determine how many innocent infant souls were lost to abortion each year.
5 comments:
Thank you for that - Tucker writes really well.
A lot of these practices seem akin to the idea of "product placement" in soap operas; if kids see examples of blokes having boyfriends or blacks getting ill-treated everywhere they look, they will come to think of the former being normal, and the latter being a deplorable fact. There was a lot of this in Further Education when I worked there. I had to encourage staff to include references to gender, sexuality, race, disability, etc. in their lessons. Obviously, we came to the conclusion that they should wheel this out during Ofsted inspections, but ignore it otherwise. Plumbers had special lessons featuring the installation of nile pans (those 3rd. world squat toilets); caterers would save up sessions on Asian cuisine; hairdressers would explain Afro hair techniques.
The ones that completely stumped us were book-keeping (I guess you could have invoices from unpronounceable names) and computer coding.
It all seems utterly pointless and on the level of "Elf 'n' Safety". But the shiver of fear that runs through Tucker's piece is to do with where these woke idiots get the idea from. Fascism, Islamism, and Marxism. And it works.
Sam - interesting - wheeling out the woke during Ofsted inspections. From some of the stories Grandson tells me I have the impression that compliance can be superficial - in his school at least. Maybe the huge scope of the internet brings out the doubter in many of us. Or maybe it is just too easy to make fun of these things and that's what many people quietly do.
"cone-section": they were called conic sections in my day. But we had had the benefit of a better education.
I have come across a few vulgar fractions. They are becoming less common.
dearieme - at least they weren't described as conic cuts.
Doonhamer - maybe modern culture has used up all the available vulgarity.
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