Saturday, March 09, 2013

Teaching math is not child abuse

I just got this rude comment:
Parents don't make their kids gay, They do try to make them mathmaticians and shove math contests down their throats.
Whether or not parents make their kids gay is an open question for which there is no academic consensus. Studies of gay parents show that their kids turn out gay about 10% of the time, versus 2-3% for the general population. There is a nature-nurture debate about this, and it is somewhat off-topic for this blog. Some people subscribe to a gay gene theory, but no such gene has ever been found. I accept what the scientific studies say.

I believe that parents should have the autonomy to rear their kids according to their own beliefs, unless they are demonstrably contrary to laws against abuse and neglect. So while I may express my personal child-rearing opinions, I do not believe that they should be forced on others (unless I give an argument about criminal abuse or neglect).

The reader is insinuating that I tried to make my daughters into mathematicians and shove math contests down their throats. That is not true, and no one who knows my daughters would say any such thing. Not even my angry ex-wife ever said anything similar, or ever complained about me teaching them math.

Judge Heather D. Morse did write in her decision:
experiences being adduced into evidence, such as enrolling them in a math test which was reportedly way above their abilities
No one reported that the test was way above their abilities. They did well on the test. It was a County math contest that was open to any students in the county.

CPS agent Sally Mitchell and commissioner Irwin H. Joseph also made negative remarks about me teach math to girls, but neither of them ever heard any evidence that the math was too hard or against their wishes. My kids wanted to do the contest, and they enjoyed it.

I could give a more thorough refutation, but I prefer to only discuss my kids to the extent that my ex-wife has put their lives on the public court record. My kids have been out of my life and influence for over 5 years now. If they hate math or if my ex-wife thinks that math is bad for them, then they could avoid math. I certainly think that they are better off for what I taught them, but I am not posting what they are doing now.

I do have some personal beliefs about math teaching. Every one of my kids' public elementary school teachers hated math, and did a terrible job of teaching it. They were women who liked girly activities, but not math. The kids who did well in the math contest were mostly kids whose parents had supplemented their math education. Poor math education holds a lot of kids back in their schooling. I recommend that parents teach their kids, especially in areas where the schools do a lousy job. That's just my opinion.

Update: I just stumbled across this clipping. 4 in 10 is not a majority, but maybe the survey undercounted the math haters..

13 comments:

Zorro said...

You're a man who cares about the welfare of his own children. You are going to get hate mail in massive quantities. Men are not supposed to give a flying fuck about the welfare of their children. If they do, it upsets the feminist meme that dictates only females are capable of compassion and love.

Anonymous said...

If I understand your case correctly, Judge Morse issued a temporary custody and no visitation order and also forbade you from making a motion for modification for two years. It seems to me that an argument could be made that it was constructively a permanent order. Had it been a permanent order, the time for appeal would've already run out, but there might be an argument to reset the clock in this case due to the sham nature of the purportedly temporary order. I'd look for the best family lawyer at making appeals in Santa Cruz or San Jose and just pay for an hour of advice to check that out. You might set a valuable precedent and stop this method of avoiding appellate review of custody and visitation cases.

On the other hand, if the two years is almost over, you could just make another try. Keep it simple and just get some kind of regular visitation. Don't try for the perfect solution or everything at once.

George said...

I have been to the appeals court before, with better arguments. Complete waste of time. Even if I won, the most I would ever get would be a remand back to the family court for another evaluation. That appeal and evaluation would take two years.

Anonymous said...

Who do you think complained to the court about you pushing math on your kids ?

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't take two years for a temporary order for supervised visitation. Of course that would be an insult and your kids would barely remember you and would probably be bitter, but even intact families have kids who are bitter until they grow up and find out how it is to have kids of their own.

Some of your appeals did succeed in part. Justice Richard McAdams is out to pasture and off the 6th District now. He was the worst judge in Santa Cruz County and only got elevated during the death throes of the Gray Davis administration due to his political party connections. I didn't vote for the recall or for Schwarzenegger, but what a certifiable moron he turned out to be to give Davis another 30 days after losing to pack every court in the state with incompetent cronies he'd never have appointed if he still cared about a legacy.

George said...

No one actually said that I was unreasonably pushing math on my kids. I quoted Judge Morse. Her point is unclear. I think that she and the others were simply expressing a prejudice against mathematicians, and math for girls.

Possibly I could get an order for supervised visitation. I did that for 2 years, and I considered the process destructive. The supervisors were mean to my kids.

Anonymous said...

"Who do you think complained to the court about you pushing math on your kids ?"

I didn't realize the family court was waiting around for unsolicited third parties to chime in. At least math is honest work open to inspection and verification rather than a form of prostitution like lawyering.

Anonymous said...



Let's try it again. Who do you think complained to the court about you pushing math on your kids ?

Anonymous said...

People born into a particular culture that grow up absorbing the values and behaviors of the culture will develop a worldview that considers their culture to be the norm.[6] If people then experience other cultures that have different values and normal behaviors, they will find that the thought patterns appropriate to their birth culture and the meanings their birth culture attaches to behaviors are not appropriate for the new cultures. However, since people are accustomed to their birth culture, it can be difficult for them to see the behaviors of people from a different culture from the viewpoint of that culture rather than from their own.[7]

George said...

I don't think anyone complained about me pushing math. After all, the schools push math. The complaint was that they wanted to separate me from my kids, and math was just something to babble about.

Anonymous said...

I think that you're right about the math just being an excuse to separate you from your kids but,it seems that someone had to bring the math contest issue to their attention, don't you ? Maybe it's not a very imporatant issue in the whole scheme of things.

Anonymous said...

I don't follow you about the schools and math.

"After all, the schools push math."

"Every one of my kids' public elementary school teachers hated math, and did a terrible job of teaching it. They were women who liked girly activities, but not math. The kids who did well in the math contest were mostly kids whose parents had supplemented their math education. Poor math education holds a lot of kids back in their schooling. I recommend that parents teach their kids, especially in areas where the schools do a lousy job. That's just my opinion."

George said...

Yes, the schools teach math whether the teachers like it or not. They are also required to give the STAR test in math and other subjects every year.