4 ms·

I never said I was surprised The difference is the example question isn't political, it merely puts a data set in front of students and has them analyze it. >

I never said I was surprised The difference is the example question isn't political, it merely puts a data set in front of students and has them analyze it. > You can't ask a politically-charged question in a class that has nothing to do with politics The question has nothing to do with politics. It would be political if the teacher said: "now draw these conclusions, vote for these people". I know the link I provided had questions that were more in line with this, but the specific example I gave isn't asking for any conclusions, only observations

fluoridation 5y ago
How is a question about ethnic groups in the US now not political? Where do you think those differences in food security come from? >the specific example I gave isn't asking for any conclusions, only observations Well, here's an observation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#/media/File:PiratesVsTemp(en).svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#/medi... Setting the joke aside, is there really that much difference between giving you that (perfectly true) statistic and just telling you "pirates prevent global warming"?
upsidesinclude 5y ago
Yeah, this is the bad faith argument in action. Of course it had to do with politics and you want to pretend otherwise. The subject is MATH. The learning should be MATH. Other learning can happen where those types of critical thinking skills are taught. That is not the purpose of a MATH class.
- derevaunseraun 5y ago
  And you're saying analyzing a data set and making observations isn't math? What about this hypothetical data set makes you so uncomfortable?
  - upsidesinclude 4y ago
    Once again you are arguing in bad faith. This isn't about me. It's about whether children should be expected to deal with irrelevant topics in class. There are an infinite number of ways to ask the same mathematical problem that don't involve political issues. But you insist that it must be so, then deny that it is so. And to cap it off, you call anyone that disagrees a racist... not flat out, through insinuation. Bad faith argument.

fluoridation 5y ago

How is a question about ethnic groups in the US now not political? Where do you think those differences in food security come from? >the specific example I gave isn't asking for any conclusions, only observations Well, here's an observation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#/media/File:PiratesVsTemp(en).svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster#/medi... Setting the joke aside, is there really that much difference between giving you that (perfectly true) statistic and just telling you "pirates prevent global warming"?

upsidesinclude 5y ago

Yeah, this is the bad faith argument in action. Of course it had to do with politics and you want to pretend otherwise. The subject is MATH. The learning should be MATH. Other learning can happen where those types of critical thinking skills are taught. That is not the purpose of a MATH class.

derevaunseraun 5y ago
And you're saying analyzing a data set and making observations isn't math? What about this hypothetical data set makes you so uncomfortable?
- upsidesinclude 4y ago
  Once again you are arguing in bad faith. This isn't about me. It's about whether children should be expected to deal with irrelevant topics in class. There are an infinite number of ways to ask the same mathematical problem that don't involve political issues. But you insist that it must be so, then deny that it is so. And to cap it off, you call anyone that disagrees a racist... not flat out, through insinuation. Bad faith argument.