After the Florida Department of Education rejected dozens of math textbooks last week, the big question was why?
The department said some of the books “contain forbidden topics” from socio-emotional learning or critical racial theory – but released only four specific pages of textbooks showing content he opposed.
Using online sample material provided by publishers in Florida’s school districts, The New York Times was able to review 21 of the rejected books and see what might have led the state to reject them. Because Florida publishes so few details about the process of reviewing its textbooks, it is not known whether these examples led to the rejection. But they illustrate the way in which these concepts appear – and do not appear – in teaching materials.
There was little in most books that concerned race, no matter the academic framework such as critical racial theory.
But many textbooks include socio-emotional learning content, a practice with roots in psychological research that seeks to help students develop thinking that can help academic success.
The image below, from marketing materials provided by Big Ideas Learning – whose elementary textbooks Florida rejected – shows a common way teachers are taught to think about social-emotional learning.
The pie chart outlines the five basic skills that students need to develop: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness, and relationship building. This framework was developed by CASEL, a non-profit educational organization.
Until recently, the idea of building socio-emotional skills was quite consistent in American education. Research shows that students with these skills score higher on the test.
But right-wing activists like Chris Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, are seeking to link socio-emotional learning to the broader debate about teaching race, gender and sexuality in the classroom.
In an e-mail interview in March, Mr Rufo said that while socio-emotional learning sounds “positive and consistent” in theory, in practice SEL serves as a delivery mechanism for radical pedagogies such as critical racial theory and gender deconstructivism. “.
SEL’s intention, “he continued,” is to soften children emotionally, reinterpret their normative behavior as an expression of “oppression,” “whiteness,” or “internal racism,” and then readjust their behavior to the dictates of left-wing ideology. ”.
Mr Rufo also expressed concern that socio-emotional training required teachers to “serve as psychologists, which they are not equipped to do”.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke more generally about socio-emotional learning as a distraction, he said, from mathematics itself.
“The math is about getting the right answer,” he told a news conference Monday, adding, “It’s not about how you feel about the problem.”
Stephanie M. Jones, a developmental psychologist and social and emotional learning expert at Harvard Graduate School of Education, disagrees.
“Feelings arise all the time – they arise when we do work in our offices and when children learn things,” she said. “It makes sense to try to engage these feelings or fight them to be more effective in what we do.”
SOOTHING MATHEMATICS ANXIETY
Many of the rejected textbooks really make students think about their emotions. In a fifth-grade book by McGraw Hill, shown below, students are encouraged to write a “math biography” early in the school year that reflects their feelings on the subject and how they expect math skills to help them enjoy hobbies or achieve goals. .
“A math biography is a way to help children,” said Professor Jones. “There’s a lot of evidence to show that if you can bring your insecurities and worries about something to the surface, it’s easier to deal with and manage it.”
Teachers can read biographies to find out which students need extra support, she added.
Some McGraw Hill pages include social-emotional prompts that have little to do with math problems, such as the example below in a fifth-grade book. Under a simple math problem, students ask, “How can you understand your feelings?”
TRANSMISSION OF MISTEL FOR GROWTH TO STUDENTS
Some of the theories related to social and emotional learning have penetrated deeply into popular culture and the world of business. Among the most popular are the concept of “growth tuning” developed by Carol Duek of Stanford, and the closely related idea of ”endurance” developed by Angela Duckworth of the University of Pennsylvania.
These theories sometimes attract more criticism from the left than from the right. Some educators worried that the field of socio-emotional learning glorified upper-middle-class white behavior, and paid too little attention to the kind of toughness needed to grow up in poverty, for example, or to overcome barriers. of race, language, and class, which can make it difficult for many students to persevere academically.
Understand the debate over critical racial theory
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CRT is not new. Derrick Bell, a pioneer in law who died in 2011, spent decades researching what it would mean to understand racism as a constant feature of American life. He is often called the godfather of critical racial theory, but the term was coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in the 1980s.
The theory gained new notoriety. Following protests sparked by the assassination of George Floyd, critical racial theory has resurfaced as part of the reaction among conservatives – including former President Trump – who have begun using the term as a political weapon.
The current debate. Critics of the CRT say it accuses all white Americans of being racist and is used to divide the country. But critical race theorists say they are primarily concerned with understanding racial differences that continue to exist in institutions and systems.
Problem with hot button in schools. The debate has turned school boards into battlefields, as some Republicans say the theory is invading classrooms. Education leaders, including the Association of National School Councils, say CRT is not taught in K-12 schools.
Conservative education experts, on the other hand, have often praised efforts to teach “character,” a concept that overlaps significantly with socio-emotional learning.
The textbooks that Florida rejected are full of references to character traits such as perseverance and cooperation. A first-grade textbook from Savvas Learning Company, formerly known as Pearson K12 Learning, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of “learning by doing”, “learning together” and “growing up”. Throughout the book, children from animated films jump to the side of the pages to remind students of these ideas:
High school textbooks also draw on these concepts. A rejected geometry textbook from Study Edge, shown below, makes students rate 1 to 4 on how willing they are to “try new things” in math or “persevere when something is challenging.”
After assessing their understanding of mathematical concepts, students are asked to assess their willingness to “try new things” and “persevere when something is challenging.” Credit … Study Edge
Over the past year, as Republican activists have increasingly focused on what they call the excesses of progressive education, socio-emotional learning has come under fire.
In June 2021, the Florida Department of Education sent a note to the publishers of math textbooks, advising them not to include “social-emotional learning and culturally responsive learning” in their materials.
Timothy Dorrer, director of the Northwestern University Teachers’ Guide, called it “short-sighted” and said research showed that incorporating socio-emotional learning into texts helped students learn social skills.
“If you ask 100 CEOs what skills they want for a new hire, the first five skills will be related to social and emotional learning, not algebra,” he said.
“Are you a nice person to talk to?” Will you be a good colleague? ” Professor Dorer added. “We know that the best way to teach this is to combine it with math, social studies, whatever.”
RACE AND DIVERSITY
Professor Dorer said that despite its importance, socio-emotional learning is shrouded in debate over critical racial theory, which is not normally taught in K-12 schools but has become a concern among those who attack efforts to teach more. critical history of race in America.
“SEL has nothing to do with critical race theory,” he said, “and yet it connects at the levels of local school boards and local communities, as well as in national dialogue.”
There are few references to competition in these math textbooks, although publishers have often taken care to include text assignments with ethnically diverse names and foods such as empanada. But this rejected McGraw Hill algebra textbook, shown below, does include mini-biographies of mathematicians throughout history, almost all of whom are women or people of color:
An eighth-grade algebra textbook page includes a brief biography of Dorothy Johnson Vaughn, an African-American mathematician who runs a computing unit for the agency now known as NASA.Credit … McGraw Hill
In a statement, Savvas said he would “work with the Florida Department of the Environment to resolve any perceived issues” and said it was common for publishers to review the material to meet state standards. Other companies said they did not want to comment until they had time to review why their books were rejected. Publishers have 21 days to appeal decisions under Florida law.
Vincent T. Forez, president of the Tampa-based publishing house Link-Systems International, which presented curricula for three high schools in mathematics …
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