"People who believe this kind of thing probably aren’t committed to rigorous instruction in mathematics, writes Dave of No Illusions [via Joanne Jacobs's comments] re the hornet's nest of controversy we stumbled upon in publishing our recently InstaLanched post on "the so-called math wars," as Anti-Racist-Math-Denier Chris Correa calls it. Dave cites "a random passage from The Science Question in Feminism that set our teeth on edge:
If we are not willing to try to see the favored intellectual structures and practices of science as cultural artifacts rather than as sacred commandments handed down to humanity at the birth of modern science, then it will be hard to understand how gender symbolism, the gendered social structure of science, and the masculine identities and behaviors of individual scientists have left their marks on the problematics, concepts, theories, methods, interpretations, ethics, meanings, and goals of science.
If a Marxist feminist falls in the woods and no one heard her, did she make a sound? Strunk and White are surely rolling over in their graves at the density of the prose. Yes, we know, academic fashions lean toward unintelligibility, but frankly, my dear, who has the time? We are of the school that gives low Marx (pun intended) to postmodern theory -- as blogged here -- which even Stanley Fish & Company are now saying "was ineffective and no longer mattered in the world outside academe, if it ever did." First Saddam. Then Dan Rather. Can the false idols of political correctness be far behind?
Note: Thanks to our reader Katie, who left the following comment that piqued our interest and led us into this quaqmire of controversy:
There's some controversy about whether the original Newton Tab article is correct: The Straw Man's Math Curriculum.
We followed the URL and found Chris Corrrea's dissing of Tom Mountain, author of that Newton Tab article, "Math doesn't add up." Chris accused Tom of having an agenda that distorted the facts, but a Google search led us to TangoMan at Gene Expression, who fisks poor Chris's argument beyond repair.
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