This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
What is so bad about common core? From what I've seen, it's a boring inoffensive educational standard.
From my experience with it, Common Core is the attempt to make people do "mental math". Instead of multiplying 12 x 13, you instead multiply (10 x 13) + (2 x 13).
The problems with it are:
I'd describe it as similar to communism - in a world where everyone behaves well and knows what they're doing, it's superior. In reality, you get a mess.
It can't be the only thing wrong with Common Core. No one would get riled up that much if the only problem was constrained to a single subject and to a specific operation. Also, how else would you multiply two double-digit numbers if not by breaking one down?
I mean, it's obvious to you that this is the exact same thing as "old school" multiplication - I don't think it's obvious to the average person (including teachers!)
A lot of people really just don't "get" math. Back in high school, I remember noticing at one point that 9 x 7 was one less than 8 x 8, 8 x 6 was one less than 7 x 7, etc. I remember going through a bunch of examples trying to figure out why this was - and ended up discovering the x^2 - 1 = (x + 1)(x - 1) equality that had been taught to me like 3 years prior. It hadn't even occurred to me that the equality represented something real - they were just symbols to manipulate. And I was considered to be really good at math!
So for someone who half-remembers their old math lessons, the new stuff just looks insane.
I'm also not stating this is all that's wrong with it - this just happens to be what I'm familiar with
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link