The Oregon Department of Education has decided that math education — you know, the math that took men and women to space and brought them back — in America is … wait for it … racist.
That’s right! The idea that a problem can have one right answer, or that students should show their work so the teacher can see how they arrived at their answer, is rooted in “white supremacy culture.”
When you hire a contractor to build a house 20 years from now, it might look a little odd because the guy (am I allowed to assume it will be a he?) forming the foundation figures a 3-4-6 triangle will work as well as a 3-4-5.
But you can pat yourself on the back because at least he wasn’t tormented with racist math as a child.
When the bridge you drive over collapses, you can tell yourself how wonderful it is that the engineer who designed it wasn’t forced to admit there was a single right answer to calculate the weight it could hold.
But tell yourself that very quickly as you plunge into the water below, and don’t forget to congratulate yourself because at least the engineer didn’t have to learn racist math.
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