Pearcey begins her column with some mind-boggling illustrations:
A young woman describing herself as a teacher, Ph.D. student, and "social justice change agent," recently gained notoriety for tweeting, "The idea of 2+2 equaling 4 is cultural," a product of "western imperialism/colonialism."
Yes, even mathematics, held up as the most objective and neutral of disciplines, is being reshaped by critical theory, which claims that all ideas are social constructions by groups using their power to advance their own interests.
This is not just the inflammatory language of young social justice warriors. Alan Bishop, who teaches at Cambridge University, wrote an article titled "Western Mathematics: The Secret Weapon of Cultural Imperialism," in which he deplores "the process of cultural invasion in colonised countries by western mathematics."
In Educational Studies in Mathematics, two math educators at Georgia State University write, "Dominant mathematics is a system established as right and True by the White men who have historically controlled and constructed the game." The authors call for "critical mathematics" to expose "the power dynamic between the oppressor — White, male mathematicians — and the oppressed — the marginalized Other."
Gutiérrez charges that algebra and geometry perpetuate white privilege because the textbook version of math history is Eurocentric: "[c]urricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans."
I'm not sure which history textbooks she's talking about. We all use Arabic numerals, and in my college math class, we learned that the concept of zero as a place holder came from India; that the Babylonians gave us the 360-degree circle and the 60-minute hour; that the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Chinese all had a rough idea of the value of pi.
A website for teachers, "K–12 Academics," calls for the development of "anti-racist" mathematics:
As Pearcey notes, mathematics was developed by scholars all across the ancient world, not just Europe. Geometry, in particular, was a product of scholars throughout the Middle East and Egypt as well as Greece. It was pursued and advanced in the West because it was enormously successful in explaining how the universe works and because it allowed for giant strides in technology.
Pearcey argues that the above examples are the bizarre offshoots of what academics refer to as Critical Theory which maintains that all human activity can be explained in terms of power plays to advance the interests of oneself or one's group:
Critical theorists argue that mathematics is just another arbitrary human creation that has been used to privilege certain groups while excluding others. Since all worldviews are regarded as equally valid, the selection of any one worldview to teach in the classroom can only be a matter of privileging the interests of one social group over others.
I wonder how many folks who believe that math is arbitrary would board an airplane developed by aeronautical engineers who believed that any equations used in designing the plane were just as valid as any other.
Pearcy adds:
But critical theory contains a fatal self-contradiction. While proponents of the theory treat everyone else's beliefs as relative to social conditions, they treat their own beliefs as objective and universally true. And they are just as exclusive as anyone else in insisting that their view captures the way things really are.
Critical theory is also inherently coercive, which makes it dangerous. Because it reduces truth claims to power plays, it has no problem with using power to advance its own views. Gutiérrez warns, "Any resistance to the sociopolitical turn is a form of hegemony." In other words, no resistance, no disagreement allowed.
Many educators are buying into critical theory because it promises them a more culturally sensitive approach for helping non-white students become more confident in their mathematical abilities — certainly a worthy goal. But ultimately, critical theory will harm more than help. Because it denies the very possibility of knowledge, ironically, it undercuts the deepest motivation for education: the unrelenting search for truth.
Or maybe they're buying into critical theory because math is hard, both to teach and to learn, so their solution is to simply do away with math. Next they'll be saying the same thing about reading and writing.
What a great way to insure that inequalities between socio-economic strata grow even wider and that the more disadvantaged are plunged back to a state of primitive barbarism. No hate-filled Klansman could've devised a more insidious plot to oppress blacks than promoting the idea that they alone, among all the nation's minorities, can't learn the white man's math and shouldn't be expected to.