Woke are right about easing Math Requirements for University Admissions
STEM Plebs GTFO
source: @SteveMillerOC on X
I approve of the recent proposed woke changes at the University of California System, to ease Algebra requirements and substitute them with other subjects like data science. One of the reasons that I didn’t get into a prestigious University was that I struggled in math. So I approve of this for personal reasons, despite the racial equity motives. What I support is specialized admissions, where students can be admitted upon just one field where they excel.
It is not that I don’t acknowledge the value of math and STEM to civilization and certain careers, but everyone does not have to be good at everything. Not to mention that the conservative position on meritocracy does not take into account that people are born with different genetic capabilities. Conservative Philistines will ridicule people for going to art school but then complain about why liberals dictate the culture. Conservatives are so obsessed with STEM that they deserve their future Mandarin and Tamil Brahmin overlords.
A lot of people think they are bad in math but just had bad teachers and or bad schooling structures. For instance, in High School, I had a really bad math teacher who was rude and unhelpful. Plus there were a lot of disruptive students in the class, as is typical in an LA public school. I also missed a semester living in England and was not allowed to attend school in England, so I got behind on courses like math. However, I had a tutor/teacher's aide who helped me make up my math credits, so I could graduate.
I am actually really good at data, as far as it relates to things interesting and tangible in my articles. I also scored 130 in an IQ test on spatial tasks. The thing about math is that you can't force cognitive milestones, and even intelligent kids end up aggravated at a subject where the approach is banging your head against hard cognitive milestones you haven't reached yet until you break through. It is the same with writing essays, I struggled at writing essays in my teens and early 20s but now that is what I thrive and excel at.
'Merit' is just more 'color-blind' liberalism.
What matters is identifying, cultivating and deploying talent(s).
That's what the 'university system' should be about, instead of 'credentialing the credentialable'.
A 'talent' system would have value for *everyone* not just the technocracy.
I am a math professor who has taught several data science courses. IMHO, having students on different tracks depending on ability and interest is just fine so long as reasoning skills are duly emphasized in each of the courses in a given track. In the game of life, I don't necessarily need you to tell me what the antiderivative of a given function is, but I do need you, as the rest of society does, to be able to smell a rat when you're being told that a given data set is telling you X but the accompanying explanation, if one is given, can't withstand scrutiny. You don't have to be a math whiz to do the latter, just someone who can both use the knowledge imparted to them and demonstrate the courage to call BS whenever you're being lied to.