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Math Textbooks

As a student and now as a teacher I have used math books regularly as part of my work. They serve different purposes, aim at different readerships, are used for different types of courses, and so on. 

There is a long history of using examples in math books that reflect the culture of the authors and possibly what they think the mainstream audience is. Many of the probability and statistics books that I have read over the years were very heavily gendered, using male and female as the easiest example of two related populations.

In more recent years I've noticed that statistics textbooks were more willing to use as examples whether or not there was enough evidence of bias to justify a lawsuit being successful.  Such lawsuits are a more common part of our culture, and the books reflect that.

I don't think I've seen any math books that I would call radical or outside the mainstream. While the profession has diversified a good deal during my time in it (thank God) it does not often push back against the mainstream. That is why it feels very strange for Governor DeSantis of Florida to ban most of the math books that the public schools had been using as pushing some kind of political agenda that is a mixture of Critical Race Theory and a few other popular public enemies in his mind.

I've seen some of these books and work with teacher education faculty that prepare our students to use them. You just need to look through the pages; there is no there there. It is math, not a political viewpoint.

This seems particularly brazen; if Governor DeSantis and his allies feel that they benefited politically from doing this, what's next?  If you do not tether your accusations to anything factual, the sky's the limit in terms of made-up controversies.

He could be using his power and bully-pulpit to provide more resources for public education; more salary and training for teachers that could go along with higher accountability; invest in school infrastructures; the list is long of things that would make sense. He and the people that support him have chosen another path.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 28, 2022 at 1:52 PM

    I was very taken aback by the original announcement, but the couple of examples the government finally came out with of the issue did seem "more there" than I expected. The examples were sparse, and you know they are going to be the most "radical", but still ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. JCApril 28, 2022 at 1:59 PM

    Yes, the examples came out the day after I posted this if I recall. They were about a survey of racial attitudes, so acknowledging that such a survey existed was deemed offensive. More than I thought but still "weak tea".

    ReplyDelete

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