[conspire] Is math instruction racist?

[Nick Moffitt]

On 12Jul2021 05:55pm (-0700), Rick Moen wrote:
> And, anyway, it's worth pondering who's speaking.  The About page says:
> "a team of teachers, instructional coaches, researchers, professional
> development providers, and curriculum writers with expertise in
> mathematics education, English language development, and culturally
> responsive pedagogy".  A separate page lists 34 educator types.
> 
> In other words, some qualified professionals with a point of view.
> Not a government agency.

I am reminded of a mid-'00s tech press puff-piece about a conference of some sort, that reported "mathematicians furious at computer scientists" or some such nonsense.

It turned out that it was actually computer scientists frustrated at the tech industry leaders for ignoring progress in the actual science of computing and continuing to push inefficient and poorly-designed systems.  Apparently some tech bro stood up after a CS paper was presented, and complained that the academic wasn't helping him make money by studying theory.  The presenter made some cutting remarks and the audience laughed, or something.

But the fact that tech bros at startups are not "computer scientists" was lost on whatever junior reporter they sent down to whatever Mariott ballroom the conference was held in.  Further, the substantive dispute of the conversation was lost on someone who couldn't understand it past a "theorists angry at practitioners" level.

So we got someone's "this is more of a comment than a question" turned into a misleading front-page article that everyone forwarded around.