That Time I Taught “CRT-infused Math”
Hank Aaron Beats Babe Ruth’s Record in 1974
Issue #49: Education
As we approach the 2022 midterm elections that will decide which party will control the House of Representatives and the Senate, we need to also watch some gubernatorial races, especially in Florida and Texas. In Florida, former Republican governor Charlie Christ, who switched to the Democratic Party, will be running against current Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. In Texas, former congressman Beto O’Rouke is looking to unseat current Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
Currently, Abbott and DeSantis, both of whom also have their eye on the 2024 presidential race, are competing against each other to see which of them can go farthest to the radical right.
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Among the myriad of egregious initiatives DeSantis has championed is working with the Florida Department of Education (DOE) to eliminate 40% of the potential math textbooks that, in their opinion, will “indoctrinate students” because they may include references to some Common Core standards, Social-Emotional Learning, and (egads!) Critical Race Theory (CRT).
A quick reminder that Critical Race Theory is a set of courses ONLY taught at post-graduate college levels and/or in law schools. It is NOT taught in K-12 or even at the undergrad or Master’s Degree levels. The Republicans have co-opted the term to falsely claim that “promoting CRT” means anything that does not teach history or current events from a white, straight, Christian, American Exceptionalism, and “America First” point of view.
So DeSantis and the Florida DOE are looking to allow the K-5 math books from only one publisher, Houston, Texas-based Accelerated Learning, which is now owned by The Carlyle Group, which itself was once co-headed by the current Republican governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin. This is just a coincidence, right?!?
In 1974, I Taught Math and Black History at the Same Time!
About fifty (!) years ago, I was a 6th-grade teacher in a primarily white, mostly rural school district outside of Ypsilanti, Michigan. As I have discussed previously in this publication, here and here, if I was teaching today the way I taught then, I would most probably be “blacklisted” (pun definitely intended) by the administration and many parents, and maybe even fired by the school board.
What would have been my horrible crime in 1974? Teaching math using baseball stats while watching African-American “Hammerin’” Hank Aaron reach his goal of becoming the Home Run King by surpassing the 53-year-old home run record of white baseball star Babe Ruth. As we all know, Hank Aaron and his family received a lot of racist hate mail and death threats, and I am sure that I mentioned that fact to my mostly white preteen students.
Meanwhile, the game of baseball is filled with historic and current statistics, and back in the days when I was a young teacher, baseball was also “America’s Game,” and I taught those statistics equally to the girls and the boys.
Some of the math areas I taught my students using baseball stats, especially those by Hank Aaron, included how to figure batting averages, ERAs (earned run averages), on-base percentages, and problem-solving techniques using addition, multiplication, fractions, decimals, and (yikes!) division. How divisive of me to teach division!
Back in 1974, the only “technology” I had in my classroom was the 45 rpm record player and 16mm movie projector. It was, however, possible for the office to forward the radio broadcast to my classroom via the school’s PA system. That’s how we listened to the games from Atlanta that featured Hank Aaron.
Additionally, I taught my students about the Negro Leagues, Jackie Robinson, and Willie Mays, and we also followed the games and players for the Detroit Tigers that had won the World Series in 1968, just six years earlier. My 10-12-year-olds would have remembered that exciting time.
But because I integrated Black History and highlighted African-American players, today I would have been accused of teaching math through a “CRT-lens” and “indoctrinating” my students by teaching them “to think critically” as they worked on advanced basic math skills.
This is the fight American teachers are facing today. No wonder so many educators are leaving the profession and career that they loved.
What do you think about how the Republicans are reframing American public education as a fight against “woke liberal policies” like basic skills, full American history, and critical thinking of any kind?
Let us know in the comments.
