A recent Wall Street Journal piece by Diane Ravitch
explained that mathematics is under attack by liberals, who want to
turn it into an anti-west, anti-capitalist discipline that uses books
featuring chapters like “Sweatshop Accounting” and “Home Buying While Brown or Black.” The
thesis of the piece so concerned Karen Palasek that she authored a
commentary, which was picked up this week by Peer Review,
a blog which prides itself on well-reasoned analysis of politics,
education, entertainment, religion and more. Palasek wrote of her
concern as a parent and an analyst that math, one of the last few
subjects not afflicted by political correctness, is now a target of the
Left. “Social and economic engineering – we’ve seen this before, with
horrifying results.” Last week, Palasek attended two events sponsored
by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute at Princeton University: the
National Civic Literacy Board and the Arthur Rasmussen meeting on
Developing Alternatives to the Present Ph.D.
Politicizing Math