Here's a fine example of why so many don't trust government to use our tax dollars wisely:
With help from a $10 million federal grant, the University of Arizona will try to make math instruction culturally and linguistically sensitive to Hispanics, thereby raising math achievement. The Tucson Citizen reports.
The Citizen quotes Ron Marx, an education professor:
Among the goals of the new center are to create teaching materials and ways of teaching that bring in a cultural and linguistic context specific to Latinos, said Ron Marx, dean of the UA College of Education.
"Historically the dominant culture of the country has been western European and English. Curriculum materials reflect (those) cultural patterns, which isn't good or bad, it just means that kids from those kinds of backgrounds tend to have more advantages because the content and the way it is delivered matches the way their culture represents the world and what they learn at home," Marx said.
Educators can take advantage of the way Latinos express concepts of the world and the way they interact with parents and the community to build a better math program for them, Marx said.
"If you build on their home culture, then you are going to have more success," he said.
Joanne Jacobs, whose blog this comes from, writes:
[Some think] this is about teaching math in Spanish. I think it's more devious than that. They're going to come up with a "Hispanic way of knowing" math. None of that Anglocentric 2 + 2 = 4.
Linda Seebach, a former mathematician, describes "ethnomathematics" in this 2000 column. She quotes Ron Eglash of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute:
"What goes under the name of multicultural mathematics is too often a cheap shortcut that merely replaces Dick and Jane counting marbles with Tatuk and Esteban counting coconuts," he writes.
At least, 2 coconuts plus 2 coconuts equals 4 coconuts.
Viewpoint notes that some of the best mathematics students in our schools are immigrant or first generation Asians who can barely speak English. Asian children are consistently accomplished in math. I don't recall there ever being any push to spend $10 million on improving their skills.
The way to improve any group's academic performance in math, or anything else, is to find ways to improve their families. The quality of a child's family life is one of the best, if not the best, predictors of academic success.
If families are dysfunctional all the money in the world isn't going to help their children very much, and if families are strong special funding isn't needed. High percentages of Asian (and Hindu) children succeed in school precisely because they come from quality families.
Since we're on the subject, here are eight things parents of any ethnic group can do to increase the chances their child will succeed in school:
1) Get married and stay married.
2) Read to your children and insist that they in turn read quality books.
3) Take them to museums, historical sites, and libraries.
4) Enforce daily homework time and take the time to check it.
5) Curtail internet and other entertainments during the school week.
6) Give school officials the benefit of the doubt when an issue of discipline arises.
7) Insist on high standards of dress and language usage both at school and at home.
8)Encourage your child to learn to play a musical instrument, preferably an orchestral instrument, when young, insist he/she practices diligently, and don't let him/her give it up.
Implementing these eight simple suggestions is far more effective and far cheaper than spending $10 million on programs of dubious value. Just ask the average Asian immigrant.
