'Skew the Script' Math Curriculum is Another Example of the Marxist Theft of Education
Teachers are using 'Skew the Script' math curriculum as a mediator for political conversations.
Skew the Script is a nonprofit that provides teachers and students with free, relevant math lessons. Their lessons situate mathematics in real-world contexts, showing students how to use quantitative reasoning to analyze the world around them. Instead of boring old word problems, they make it more interesting by using context that students care about and content that is socially relevant. Relevant like, Is college worth the cost? Are electric cars actually greener? Can you make a living as an influencer? Who’s the best basketball player of all time? Then there are divisive social and political topics such as gerrymandering, election integrity, social welfare, policing and race, abortion, covid19 vaccines, and climate change . According to Skew the Script, lessons may utilize sociopolitical contexts but they promise that the lessons are purposefully nonpartisan. So lessons are nonpartisan, but that does not stop the larger goal of reforming student thought on topics other than math.
Skew the Script is sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they received a grant for $2,876,162 dollars. This same foundation spent hundreds of millons of dollars on the controversial Common Core education standards.
Orange County School district in North Carolina, is using Skew the Script math curriculum. One example of its use was in a Math 4 class at Orange High School. The following lesson was used for teaching categorical vs. quantitative variables.
Classroom discussion topics generated from this lesson could include abortion, Planned Parenthood as well as political division surrounding Trump vs. Biden. This particular math problem could generate many other conversation topics and simply acts as a go-between for political conversations or what is called a generative theme. Coined by Socialist Paulo Freire, a generative theme is when a lesson is used as an excuse to have political conversations with students and through these conversations difference is created among the students based on their responses. These differences will then generate a wedge among students. Now students have been taught what the “right” political or ideological beliefs are through a math problem. This is an example of culturally relevant teaching or socially relevant teaching as Skew the Script labels it.
When students bring real-world issues into their math class, we often tell them to leave it at the door. Socially relevant math takes the opposite approach. Instead of keeping real-world conversations out, we invite them in. Then, we ground the discussion in the scrupulous and common language of math.
Culturally relevant or socially relevant teaching is a Marxist theft of education. Instead of focusing on mathematics in the lesson, it is fused with engaging students in social and political issues in order to initiate action for social change. So the lessons of actual math have been stolen due to the focus on math being taken over by topics that have nothing to do with understanding how to do math problems.
Many parents are in the dark about what their children are learning in school. This is due in part from the lack of transparency of the curriculum that is being used. Today’s students are learning from computers instead of physical textbooks. Assignments and lessons are mostly on computer screens, there are no books or papers to show to parents, leaving parents with limited access to the curriculum. If a parent does request to see the curriculum they may be met with a wall. Trying to access their child’s computer is not so easy with passwords and special permissions required. Even requesting the curriculum from teachers goes unfulfilled and it is not made readily available on school websites. In a recent survey taken by parents in Orange County Schools, many voiced that they don’t know what their child is learning and they want to see the curriculum. If parents had access to curriculum and lessons and knew what was being taught, parents will then become more engaged with their child. The result is that child succeeding and growing academically due to more support at home.
Parents have the right to access their child’s curriculum. In North Carolina this right is further supported with the newly adopted legislation SB 49. Parents have the right to be provided with what they need to know about their child's educational progress and how they can help their child to succeed in school. By law, schools are required to establish a procedure for parents to learn about their child's course of study and the source of any supplementary instructional materials. Request your child’s curriculum today.
If you would like to learn more about how our eduction system has been stolen, check out James Lindsay’s book, The Marxification of Education: Paulo Freire's Critical Marxism and the Theft of Education.