Debate emerges over racism and white supremacy in Oregon math instruction
“The group claims white supremacy culture can show up in the classroom in various ways, including when ‘the focus is on getting the ‘right’ answer,’ and when ‘students are required to ‘show their work.'”
“The group also says educators should try to ‘center ethnomathematics’ by identifying and challenging the ways that ‘math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.'”
” Now mathematics is being nudged into a specifically political direction by educators who call
themselves “critical theorists.” They advocate using mathematics as a
tool to advance social justice. Social justice math relies on political
and cultural relevance to guide math instruction. One of its precepts is
“ethnomathematics,” that is, the belief that different cultures have
evolved different ways of using mathematics, and that students will
learn best if taught in the ways that relate to their ancestral culture…The culturally attuned teacher will learn about the
counting system of the ancient Mayans, ancient Africans, Papua New
Guineans, and other ‘non-mainstream’ cultures… Partisans of social justice mathematics advocate an explicitly political
agenda in the classroom… Teachers are supposed to vary the teaching of
mathematics in relation to their students’ race, gender, ethnicity, and
community.”
Oxford University May Scrap Sheet Music for Being Complicit in ‘White Supremacy’
The University of Oxford is considering proposals that would remove sheet music from its curriculum over woke claims that teaching the Western form of musical notation has roots in “colonialism” and “complicity in white supremacy”.
In response to widespread Black Lives Matter protesters and riots last year in the United Kingdom, music educators at Oxford University have joined the wider iconoclastic movement which has been sweeping through British academia.
The music department at the prestigious and ancient university has seen calls to remove music notation from the curriculum as professors seek to focus less on white European heritage and culture, according to documents seen by The Telegraph.
The woke educators went on to claim that musical notation itself is a “colonialist representational system” that has “complicity to white supremacy”. The claim is similar to leftist pronouncements in America that mathematics is inherently racist.
The Oxford academics went on to pronounce that teaching the piano or conducting orchestras could cause “students of colour great distress” as the skills involved are closely tied to “white European music”.
Professors at the university said that the classical music which is taught at Oxford, which includes Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert, among others, is too focused on “white European music from the slave period”.
The assertion is somewhat dubious, as Western classical music, as well as the practice of sheet music notation, predates the Atlantic slave trade, stemming back to musical traditions from the medieval period such as Gregorian chanting.
Delingpole: Now Oxford University Grovels to Black Lives Matter https://t.co/PsXQXWu8rN
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 17, 2020
In response to student demands “arising from international Black Lives Matter demonstrations,” the Oxford faculty is also considering placing a heavier emphasis on “non-Eurocentric” musical traditions such as Hip-Hop and Jazz, as well as “African and African Diasporic Musics” and “Global Musics”.
The curriculum could also place more importance on pop music and culture, with suggested topics including “Artists Demanding Trump Stop Using Their Songs” at campaign rallies and “Dua Lipa’s Record-Breaking Livestream”.
Mocking the woke push from the university, London mayoral candidate and Heritage Party leader David Kurten said: “For goodness sake. Oxford is supposed to be one of our top Universities that promotes academic rigour and excellence. It should not be peddling woke nonsense like ‘classical music is racist and ‘sheet music is non-inclusive’”.
The proposals come amid a wider push throughout British academia to “decolonise the curriculum” in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In February, for example, the University of Leicester caused uproar after it proposed cutting courses in Medieval English literature — removing seminal works such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf — in favour of focusing more heavily on texts relating to sexuality, diversity, race, and ethnicity.
The woke push has also seen the introduction of speech codes, with the University of Manchester telling staff to refrain from using gendered words such as “father” or “mother” in favour of more “inclusive language”.
Three Wise Monkeys Are Racist Now, Says Woke University of York https://t.co/owGSJIoBGQ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 24, 2021
ThereAreNoSunglasses 