Um, I actually think I kind of agree with J on this one. While it is extremely true that teachers shouldn't spend more time teaching the history of math than the subject itself, a lot of non white contributions to math have been heavily white washed. For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came lo…
Um, I actually think I kind of agree with J on this one. While it is extremely true that teachers shouldn't spend more time teaching the history of math than the subject itself, a lot of non white contributions to math have been heavily white washed. For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came long before he did, the theorem is still named after him. So, I still see it as a western contribution. I live in India and while I definitely haven't faced racism because I belong to an extremely homogenous population, we Indians have a tendency of seeing everything white as better. The word 'foreign' is usually code for white which is code for better. I wonder how much of this would have been solved if we had been taught about our own contributions and taught to take pride in them.
"For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came long before he did, the theorem is still named after him"
Yes, you're right. But this is true of many different inventions. The abacus, widely viewed as a Chinese invention, was first developed in Mesopotamia for example. Don't get me wrong, I think history should be taught accurately. But I also don't think it makes sense to get hung up on which skin colour was responsible for what.
In fact, we often make this mistake about people of the same skin colour. Thomas Edison don't invent the lightbulb, another white man named Joseph Swan did. Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk, a black man named Bill Bailey did. We can't move past this idea that skin colour matters if we continually focus on it.
As for the idea in some countries that "foreign" or "white" = better, yeah, this is definitely a problem. A hangover from colonialism I think. And again, I think if we're going to move past this very harmful idea, we need to stop thinking about taking pride in the work of others because their skin is the same colour as ours.
So I agree with you (and J) that teaching history accurately is important. Fundamentally, we're just talking about telling the truth there. But I simultaneously think that we need to stop thinking of ourselves as represented by everybody whose skin is the same colour as ours. Racism will always exist as long as we think this way.
😁 You don't seem confrontational at all. I'm very happy to have your input here. Disagreeing with each other and exploring those disagreements politely helps us all to learn.
Um, I actually think I kind of agree with J on this one. While it is extremely true that teachers shouldn't spend more time teaching the history of math than the subject itself, a lot of non white contributions to math have been heavily white washed. For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came long before he did, the theorem is still named after him. So, I still see it as a western contribution. I live in India and while I definitely haven't faced racism because I belong to an extremely homogenous population, we Indians have a tendency of seeing everything white as better. The word 'foreign' is usually code for white which is code for better. I wonder how much of this would have been solved if we had been taught about our own contributions and taught to take pride in them.
"For example, while you did say that you were taught that the Pythagoras theorem came long before he did, the theorem is still named after him"
Yes, you're right. But this is true of many different inventions. The abacus, widely viewed as a Chinese invention, was first developed in Mesopotamia for example. Don't get me wrong, I think history should be taught accurately. But I also don't think it makes sense to get hung up on which skin colour was responsible for what.
In fact, we often make this mistake about people of the same skin colour. Thomas Edison don't invent the lightbulb, another white man named Joseph Swan did. Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk, a black man named Bill Bailey did. We can't move past this idea that skin colour matters if we continually focus on it.
As for the idea in some countries that "foreign" or "white" = better, yeah, this is definitely a problem. A hangover from colonialism I think. And again, I think if we're going to move past this very harmful idea, we need to stop thinking about taking pride in the work of others because their skin is the same colour as ours.
So I agree with you (and J) that teaching history accurately is important. Fundamentally, we're just talking about telling the truth there. But I simultaneously think that we need to stop thinking of ourselves as represented by everybody whose skin is the same colour as ours. Racism will always exist as long as we think this way.
I really don't mean to be confrontational😅
😁 You don't seem confrontational at all. I'm very happy to have your input here. Disagreeing with each other and exploring those disagreements politely helps us all to learn.