STEM Doesn’t Care About Your Feelz

Top Dem Economist Says Woke Math Is a National Security Threat (freebeacon.com)

Look, I’m sorry that you feel bad because others are better at math than you.

I’m truly sorry that it’s because of our education system, and that you didn’t receive the best education when you were younger, because you live in a poor school district. We absolutely need to work on fixing that. Everyone in America should be able to receive a high quality education, whether you’re in rural Idaho, inner city Chicago, or Redmond, Washington.

But trying to balance things out because your education sucked doesn’t help anyone.

Larry Summers, a Harvard economist who led the National Economic Council under former president Barack Obama, shared a letter on Monday signed by almost 600 academics that condemns the rise of woke math initiatives in K-12 schools. The letter says the initiatives have devalued foundational math courses such as algebra and limited advanced math courses "to reduce achievement gaps." Summers called rigorous math instruction "an economic and a national security imperative," noting that "in China, math standards are not subject to continued erosion by social justice warriors who can't themselves define exponential growth or solve quadratic equations."

Not only does it hurt America, this trend hurts the very people it claims it’s for.

"While the U.S. K-12 system has much to improve, the current trends will instead take us further back," the letter reads. "Reducing access to advanced mathematics and elevating trendy but shallow courses over foundational skills would cause lasting damage to STEM education in the country and exacerbate inequality by diminishing access to the skills needed for social mobility."

Adrian Mims, one of the letter's signatories, told the Free Beacon that educators should focus on elevating students to advanced math classes, not trying to "lower the ceiling."

"If you do that, it's going to eliminate a lot of postsecondary opportunities for them," Mims told the Free Beacon.

The letter notes that eliminating advanced math courses would particularly harm public school students and place them at a disadvantage over students in private schools. It also warns that such reforms would reduce American students' proficiency in calculus, algebra, and logical thinking at a time when those skills "are arguably even more critical for today's grand challenges than in the Sputnik era."

This just puts you further in a hole, and makes it harder for you to climb out of it. And harms everyone else in the process.