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As a former student and now a parent. I have no idea why we need to recreate math books over and over and over again. Seems an incredible waste of resources.

As a former student and now a parent. I have no idea why we need to recreate math books over and over and over again. Seems an incredible waste of resources. The fundamental material doesn't change. I have seen politically motivated questions pop up in math questions for my kids. For years, this is pretty standard practice in my experience. Its not an appropriate venue to promote ideas yet it is used. I am unsurprised at the Florida announcement. But it speaks to much deeper issues in education and I'm uncertain at Florida's moves.

eropple 4y ago
> I have seen politically motivated questions pop up in math questions for my kids. Can you provide examples?
- atchoo 4y ago
  Not the OP but I remember people had a bit of a reaction to maths and other textbooks when I was at school 30+ years ago in a rural part of the UK. The people in the examples were usually non-traditional British names like Deepak, Surinder, Jamal etc. yet such names would be very rare in a place with little immigration at that time. There would only be a handful of non British-white kids in a school of thousands. The reaction was far from outrage just a "well I guess we are doing this now". As a kid it seemed a little silly and forced but it was my first exposure to those names in print and helped normalise such identities. I'd say it was a positive thing if a bit over done / not subtle. I'd hate to think what would have happened if the parents had mumsnet or twitter back then...
  - eropple 4y ago
    Yeah, exactly--I spent some time thinking before asking the question, and that was about all I could come up with, too. And that felt so obviously silly that that can't be it, right?
edanm 4y ago
> As a former student and now a parent. I have no idea why we need to recreate math books over and over and over again. Seems an incredible waste of resources. The fundamental material doesn't change. The way we teach the material changes, for valid reasons: 1. We can get better at teaching it. (Optimistically). 2. We might need to update textbooks for more up-to-date references. Even if it's not political ideas, textbooks might reference things that are not relevant (or not reference things that are). 3. Whether or not they are better, sometimes new ideas of how to teach material are created. E.g. new math etc.
chrismcb 4y ago
Math books are recreated because of money.

eropple 4y ago

> I have seen politically motivated questions pop up in math questions for my kids. Can you provide examples?

atchoo 4y ago
Not the OP but I remember people had a bit of a reaction to maths and other textbooks when I was at school 30+ years ago in a rural part of the UK. The people in the examples were usually non-traditional British names like Deepak, Surinder, Jamal etc. yet such names would be very rare in a place with little immigration at that time. There would only be a handful of non British-white kids in a school of thousands. The reaction was far from outrage just a "well I guess we are doing this now". As a kid it seemed a little silly and forced but it was my first exposure to those names in print and helped normalise such identities. I'd say it was a positive thing if a bit over done / not subtle. I'd hate to think what would have happened if the parents had mumsnet or twitter back then...
- eropple 4y ago
  Yeah, exactly--I spent some time thinking before asking the question, and that was about all I could come up with, too. And that felt so obviously silly that that can't be it, right?

edanm 4y ago

> As a former student and now a parent. I have no idea why we need to recreate math books over and over and over again. Seems an incredible waste of resources. The fundamental material doesn't change. The way we teach the material changes, for valid reasons: 1. We can get better at teaching it. (Optimistically). 2. We might need to update textbooks for more up-to-date references. Even if it's not political ideas, textbooks might reference things that are not relevant (or not reference things that are). 3. Whether or not they are better, sometimes new ideas of how to teach material are created. E.g. new math etc.

chrismcb 4y ago

Math books are recreated because of money.