How Critical Ethnic Studies is Entering the Classroom

Critical/Liberated Ethnic Studies calls for Ethnic Studies teachers to “integrate ethnic studies instruction with content in other areas” (ESMC), including math and science.

Critical/Liberated Ethnic Studies scholars are also working with teachers to infuse all classrooms with this ideology through webinars and training sessions under the guise of “professional development.” When asked about the explicit Marxist concepts, the trainers acknowledge that some teachers may find this difficult, but explain that they must have the “correct political views” in order to teach this subject.

CA Mathematics Framework

The integration of Critical/Liberated Ethnic Studies into other disciples in K-12 is reflected in the adoption of “ethnomathematics” in math classes, which teaches that white supremacy is inherent in math, including when teachers focus on getting the right answer & require students to show their work. Critical/Liberated Ethnic Studies “scholar-activists” call for teachers to “integrate ethnic studies instruction with content in other areas," including math and science. This infusion of Critical/Liberated Ethnic Studies into other disciples in K-12 already has been seen with the adoption of “ethnomathematics” in math classes, which teaches that white supremacy is inherent in math, including when word problems are valued over students' lived experiences, students are tracked into courses and pathways, and math is taught in a linear fashion and skills are taught sequentially.

A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction directs educators to “identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.” Teachers are instructed to not use money to teach addition or fractions, as such practices perpetuate White Supremacy:

“[Don’t use] mathematics to uphold capitalist and imperialist ways of being and understandings of the world... Limit or eliminate references to money..."

The California Department of Education (CDE) is embracing the new version of math by adopting a new Mathematics Framework as the definitive guide for K-12 math teachers. The draft Mathematics Framework challenges the belief that access to a high-quality mathematics curriculum should be individualized and available to students based on their mathematical learning needs. Rather than allow students to learn math at their own pace, the CDE wishes to eliminate advanced classes. It will also remove math tracking, forcing students to learn the same material at the same pace, from sixth grade on.

Specific Classroom Examples

Students and parents have begun speaking up as they experience the impact Critical/Liberated Ethnic Studies ideology on children. A few examples:

• Cupertino Elementary School: A math teacher instructed her class of third-graders to deconstruct their racial identities, then rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.” The teacher explained that the students live in a “dominant culture” of “white, middle class, cisgender, educated, able-bodied, Christian, English speaker[s],” who, according to the lesson, “created and maintained” this culture in order “to hold power and stay in power.”

• “Dominance” lesson in classroom: Students are instructed, "if you're white, take 3 steps forward; if you're back, take 5 steps backward."

• Biracial child suing school: A Black parent and her son are suing her high school over their insistence that her biracial, white-passing son address his “White dominance.”

• Black child learning he is a perpetual victim: "My son has wanted to be a lawyer since he was 11. Then one day he came home and told me, “But Mommy, there are these systems put in place that prevent Black people from accomplishing anything.” (The Atlantic, The Narrative Is 'You Can't Get Ahead'")

• Cuban mother: Son was told by the teacher that he is not a "real Latino" after he said, “We fled communism and socialism.” He then reported that at recess, during baseball game, kids tell him they won’t pass the ball to him because he has "white privilege." (Participant comments at ACES webinar, 7/9/20)

• Parent of 10-year-old bi-racial child: Daughter came home from school distraught, saying that her teacher ”explained” how all white people have privilege that is used to oppress Black people. The child didn't understand why Dad, who is white, is oppressing Mom, who is Black. (Participant comments at ACES webinar, 3/11/21)