California Tries to “Cancel Math Class”
For anyone looking at this, please note that this is an editorial written by an educational activist and not a news article, nor a statement of fact.  I will contend that what was written is deceptive and is more or less a gish gallop, which makes it difficult, time consuming, and tedious to refute point by point.  The actual documents can be found here:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cde.ca.gov&#x2F;ci&#x2F;ma&#x2F;cf&#x2F;index.asp" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cde.ca.gov&#x2F;ci&#x2F;ma&#x2F;cf&#x2F;index.asp</a><p>As for some specific items that have come up and and elsewhere on the internet, no, California is not advocating for eliminating calculus from the curriculum.  This is discussed in Chapter 8.  This is an open discussion of whether or not students should be pushed to get into calculus by grade 12.  Part of the thinking is that it&#x27;s possible, but the students end up with some very shallow understanding of the material.  Meaning, they can compute a u-substitution, but don&#x27;t really understand what a derivative or integral means.  They may be better off getting a better foundation and then taking calculus in college rather than just pushing for calculus.  Other options are discussed on line 340.<p>No, California is not advocating eliminating gifted programs.  This is discussed in Chapter 1 starting around line 415 and intersects with comments about calculus.  It does offer a discussion about whether or not tracking kids into gifted programs does them more harm than good in some situations because priority can often be given towards keeping up with advanced topics rather than deeper understanding.  Other organizations such as the MAA also have opinions on this.<p>And, look, I&#x27;m not contending that anyone here needs to agree or disagree with the proposals from California.  However, I will strongly contend that there&#x27;s a lot of anger against something that really does not exist in the form that is editorialized.  The editorial freely picks and chooses quotes out of context and freely mixes them some with truths and some with lies, which makes it truly exhausting to dissect.