Hey Florida! We need to see the math books.
The Florida Department of Education has rejected several dozen math textbooks for use in the state's public schools for reasons, per a departmental press release, including "references to Critical Race Theory (CRT)." The books in question, said Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), were "indoctrinating" young students with "concepts like race essentialism."
Naturally, everyone on all sides is Extremely Worked Up. But what almost no one chattering about this seems to know — so far as I can tell, anyway — is what the books say.
The original press release, circulated on Friday, didn't name the titles rejected. On Monday, Florida published a list of textbooks, but it offered no detail about the disqualifying content. The most we have is tweets from DeSantis spox Christine Pushaw, who has shared images of a math worksheet from Missouri (or maybe Pennsylvania) which awkwardly splices details of Maya Angelou's biography into algebra problems as well as a "Math Ethnic Studies Framework" attributed to Seattle Public Schools. The documents appear to be at least partially authentic, and the Angelou algebra is indeed bizarre, adding no apparent benefit for math instruction while also shortchanging discussion of Angelou's life, which ought to happen in a literature class under a teacher with both more time and more suitable expertise.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But is this what was in the books Florida rejected? I don't know. And neither, it seems, do 99 percent of those discussing the rejections. Beyond the format of this one worksheet, I'm not even sure how an elementary math textbook could work in effective commentary on race at all. How do you fit that into the "two trains" problem? Where do you cram CRT into basic arithmetic? How, specifically, does the alleged indoctrination work?
Before this goes any further, we need to see the books.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
‘The economics of WhatsApp have been mysterious for years’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Will Democrats impeach Kristi Noem?Today’s Big Question Centrists, lefty activists also debate abolishing ICE
-
Is a social media ban for teens the answer?Talking Point Australia is leading the charge in banning social media for people under 16 — but there is lingering doubt as to the efficacy of such laws
-
Why is Trump threatening defense firms?Talking Points CEO pay and stock buybacks will be restricted
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Trump considers giving Ukraine a security guaranteeTalking Points Zelenskyy says it is a requirement for peace. Will Putin go along?
-
What have Trump’s Mar-a-Lago summits achieved?Today’s big question Zelenskyy and Netanyahu meet the president in his Palm Beach ‘Winter White House’
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
-
Will California tax its billionaires?Talking Points A proposed one-time levy would shore up education and Medicaid
-
A free speech debate is raging over sign language at the White HouseTalking Points The administration has been accused of excluding deaf Americans from press briefings
