When I took over a Special Education class years ago, I noticed that, rather than any students doing math in their heads or on paper, they each had big, over-sized, spring loaded, plastic calculators they automatically went to. I knew there were some students who would always rely on such devices, out of preference or necessity, and that less childish calculators were available, but as Special Ed students must be taught according to their individual needs and abilities to reach the highest level of their learning potential, there had to be some students in the class who could memorize their times tables up to at least the tens table, or at least memorize what they could up to the ceiling of their abilities.

Cell phones were a little off in the future, so telling them that they needed some basic knowledge of the times tables so they could do simple math in places where there were no calculators, or the batteries had died was useful advice at the time.

To this end, before the winter break, I gave each student three copies of the times tables, 1-10, and told them to keep one in their bedroom, attach another to hang inside the refrigerator, and, depending on their inclination, on top of the toilet tank or on the wall opposite the toilet so that regardless how they did their business, they could see the times tables and, maybe learn some of them, and it would give them something else to do along with what they were there for.

One parent, for some reason, thought it important to go to the principal to complain about the refrigerator placement as she thought it better on the refrigerator door, and another complained that I had used the word “Toilet” in class and on the note explaining the three times tables copies and their suggested locations.

I refused to apologize for mentioning toilets in class as, I was unaware that, apparently, they were a secret place that must go unnamed and pleaded innocence through ignorance, and explained to the parent with the refrigerator problem that putting it on the door was useless as no one stares at the refrigerator door but opens it to stare at what is behind it, and, in their case, what they would see were their times tables.

These parents accepted things each to their own degree, but were outdone by other parents who complained that, as by this time I was known to be a teacher who happened to be Gay, there was something Gay hidden in the assignment. Somehow, my students’ memorizing the times tables to the best of their abilities was part of the “Homosexual Agenda”.

I had once told my students that in the future, in spite of their own plans to live and work in familiar surroundings, life has a habit of throwing curves and they might find themselves living and working somewhere they had never thought of being, and they needed to be prepared to do well anywhere, not just in the neighborhood. This was seen by some parents as condemning the state and city in which they lived, turning the students against their families, and developing a strong dislike of their home state, with memorizing the times tables somehow a part of that.

A few parents objected to my forcing the times tables down the students’ throats and explained that, as they were doing well without having learned their times tables, they saw no reason why their kids should have to learn them. 

The future had no meaning for these people.

While the parents were objecting to toilets, times tables placement, memorizing the tables being somehow anti-home state, and a pro “Gay Agenda” thing, the students were competing among themselves in who could memorize the most and were quizzing each other on the tables. Some kids, rather than use the clunky plastic calculators would just yell out, “How much is……?” and get the correct answer.

At that time, a simple meeting between teacher and parent, sometimes at the classroom door or in the office with the principal, would resolve the situations mentioned. Often, these meetings would end in a reasonable solution, an enlightened parent, or modifications for a particular parent’s kid so that while the kid continued to learn, the parents had nothing to complain about even if as in this particular case, I used good peer pressure, students having friendly multiplication contests in which kids could be motivated to learn more and did.

I also avoided the word “toilet” in favor of “Throne” or “that thing in the bathroom that cannot be named”.

That was in the 1990s. If this were Florida today, there would have been end times predictions and lawsuits to keep the kids from learning their times tables.

The Florida Department of Education has rejected 54 math books out of 132 submitted for review because,

“they incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including CRT.”

They object to the alleged inclusion of social-emotional learning (SEL) which is,

“the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” 

Basically, social skills, social interaction in a larger society, and meeting problems head on and well-equipped to handle them.

In my day, it was that section of the report card that included “works well with others”.

When I taught in one school district, it became obvious that even within the district there were many cases where, although students were to have learned certain things by the end of any given year, the order and approach being left up to the school or the individual teacher, meant when they transferred to another school, what they needed to add to what they learned at the old school was already covered at the new one or they had already covered what was being covered after the transfer at the new school. As a result, the district came up with a quarterly schedule so that all students in any given grade covered certain topics at approximately the same time leaving some wriggle room, so that a student could pick up where they had left off when they transferred and not end up behind trying to catch up.

It also ensured that all students were learning the same things.

Expand this nationally so a student transferring to another town or state would not fall behind but, theoretically, continue where they had left off, more or less, and you have the other thing the governor hates, Common Core.

Simply put, Common Core has standards designed to ensure every kid gets the same education as everyone else without lags in the coverage from one school to another. Parents can look over the standards on their own and know what their kids are learning at any given point during the year.  

Apparently, the governor has no fear that kids in Florida will end up greatly educated, but, perhaps, compared to kids in other states are woefully behind.

I taught at a school where all seniors were labelled “Honors”, which looks good on college applications. During his time at that school, the principal was so concerned that his approach to grades, attendance, graduation rates, and college acceptance would show him to be a shining star in education since under him those numbers had improved, he was eventually removed from his position and education in general  because he had doctored the records so most of them were false and misleading, and students found when they reached college that even their friends who had attended others school and may have had lower grades, had learned more.

The term “honors” had actually meant nothing.

The students at the school found themselves required to take remedial classes before they could take regular classes with their friends who had attended other schools in the same district.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis loves the book banning.

“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students.  I’m grateful that Commissioner Corcoran and his team at the Department have conducted such a thorough vetting of these textbooks to ensure they comply with the law.”

Commissioner Corcoran thanked DeSantis for the compliment by claiming that Florida had become “a national leader in education”.

“Other states continue to follow Florida’s lead as we continue to reinforce parents’ rights by focusing on providing their children with a world-class education without the fear of indoctrination or exposure to dangerous and divisive concepts in our classrooms.”

Maybe Long Division included in math texts is problematic.

Although it isn’t, the Florida Department of Education has already voted to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory because it presented “false history” and “denigrates the Founding Fathers.”

Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani has countered.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Florida Republican leaders are preparing to ban Algebra from high schools. They object to the subliminal use of [brackets] as an indoctrination to the concept of inclusion, they don’t like the equal sign, and they hate solving problems!”

The math books being banned were found acceptable when they were first approved by the same Department of Education that now bans them with some approved during the DeSantis administration. Along with this tidbit, neither the Department nor the governor has released the names of which books are out or any of the reasons upon which each is.

They simply claim the intrusion of Critical Race Theory but refuse to show how and where it is happening in the the books.

If almost half the books supposedly contain indoctrination in those things that DeSantis and his ilk find troublesome, should they not show instances where damage has been done?

To make such a law which includes parents having the ability to sue schools and individual teachers if they feel the books used in schools have an agenda it would seem that justifying the law with actual citable instances of things that need to be stopped should be required.

I could have been sued if this law existed for mentioning “toilet” in class or having a kid learn something their parent didn’t which was offensive to the parent.

With almost half the math books being presently used in Florida schools slated for removal or rejection, replacements will be needed.

Who will review them is an important question, as is the more important one, who will the vendors be?

I’m guessing Christian and right-wing publishers

 Perhaps in the word problems in these banned texts it is Father who goes to the store to buy the five apples when it should have been Mother, a Black man was in line at the register instead of bagging the groceries referenced in the problem, or a parent made the child say “Thank you” after Billy gave her one of his oranges leaving him with how many?

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