“math is racist” discourse is incredibly frustrating because it’s two groups of people talking past each other about something they should fundamentally agree on;

math education at the primary and secondary school level is completely busted

we’re tossing away hundreds of thousands of potential scientists and engineers (not to mention other disciplines aided by mathematical thinking) every year because of what we put kids through

mathematics education as it presently exists is a set of arbitrary seeming procedures kids are taught to follow so they can score highly on tests of their ability to fit problems to the mechanistic procedures they learn and apply those correctly

it’s only correct that children rebel against it; no amount of attempts to either make math “relatable” or try to teach the same mechanistic notions differently (common core) will help here

we do not have a meritocracy in mathematics education, the constant hammering on test scores as objective measures of mathematical ability is complete nonsense

we don’t even teach the mechanisms efficiently! that’s why a basic math education that could take two years takes twelve

getting rid of tracked/“gifted”/magnet programs is shuffling deck chairs on the titanic, all it does is destroy a pathway to economic opportunities. it won’t give anyone a better education, it won’t produce more equitable outcomes

for the conservatives: we’re failing to transmit a fundamental underpinning of our civilization in any meaningful way - we leave kids to discover it on their own https://twitter.com/atroyn/status/1375134685752217600

for progressives: kids from poor backgrounds think math isn’t for them, have no way to value it, and get turned into gristle by the existing system

for “”rationalists””: P(productive | made it through the gristle mill) ~= P(productive) -> P(prod. ∩ gristle.) << P(prod.)

for “”postrats””: math education is yet another victim of the need by institutions for legibility