Samuel C. Damren
In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the banning of 41 percent of math textbooks proposed for state K-12 schools. He asserted that they were infected with Critical Race Theory (CRT), but offered no examples.
In 2021, DeSantis disparaged The New York Times’ “The 1619 Project” as an example of CRT because it called into question the traditional narrative of the country’s origins and instead focused on the earlier development and subsequent role of enslaved persons in America beginning in 1619. But rather than engaging this differing perspective through dialogue, the governor embraced the culture wars by banning “The 1619 Project” from the curriculum of Florida schools.
Buoyed by partisan and media attention, the governor’s roll out of the culture wars has now expanded from the social sciences to mathematics. At the same time, and consistent with his refusal to entertain any dialogue about “The 1619 Project,” DeSantis refuses to provide any details of how CRT could possibly infect mathematics in K-12 textbooks.
DeSantis cites copyright and proprietary restrictions as reasons that prevent him from providing examples and these details. It sounds more like a variation of the Big Lie playbook: say a fraud occurred, but never produce any evidence; and, better yet, argue that there is evidence, but I can’t show it to you.
There might be other equally plausible explanations.
It’s just speculation on my part, but DeSantis’ refusal to identify passages implementing CRT in K-12 math textbooks could also be the result of ongoing negotiations with the Florida legislature to enact a comprehensive overhaul of math in Florida. I say this because a ban on certain numbers in Florida math makes as much sense as a ban on presenting the perspectives of the “The 1619 Project” in Florida social studies classes.
If the governor won’t talk about this possibility, I will. There is, after all, some low hanging fruit for banned numbers. For example, the number “1619” will unquestionably be banned as will the number “666.” The reasons are obvious. Those two are the easy ones. The number “13,” however, is not as easy as you might think.
While excluded in the numbering of floors in many apartment and condominium buildings in Florida, “13” was the jersey number of Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino. As a result, there might be legitimate concern on the part of Florida law makers that a statewide ban on “13” could result in significant voter backlash. That concern is counter-balanced by the fact that banning “13” also would result in the elimination of the 13th Congressional District which is currently represented by Democrat Charlie Crist.
To further secure the integrity of elections, Florida lawmakers and the governor also might be exploring whether Base 10 should continue to be the exclusive base utilized to compute vote counts. In this respect, conservative lawmakers might assert that Base 7 should apply to vote tallies for Republican candidates. Conservatives could point out that Base 7 is consistent with the Bible since God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh and for that reason Base 7 is bound to appeal to Christian voters.
Conservative purists will caution, however, that since all Base systems contain zeros, an invention that first appeared in the Arabic numeral system in the Ninth Century, all such systems are suspect. They might contend that a return to Roman Numerals is more consistent with the founding of a Christian nation. All that being noted, everyone in the partisan discussion will recognize that utilizing Base 7 to count Republican votes in Florida elections is a real plus.
Here is the thinking likely running around in the heads of these lawmakers. Base 7 as opposed to Base 10 has only seven digits: zero, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The number 7 in Base 10 is represented by the digits 1 and zero or “10” in Base 7. The number 8 is “11” in Base 7, the number 14 is “20” in Base 7 and so on.
Utilizing Base 7 to tally Republican votes and Base 10 to tally Democrat votes has obvious benefits.
For example, in the 2022 election, a Republican candidate for alligator catcher in Everglades County might receive 65 votes in favor to 115 votes for the Democrat candidate. But if tallied in Base 7, the number for the Republican candidate would be 122; hence, a Republican victory in the “minds” of the insurrectionist base of the party.
So much for speculation.
You might think the politicizing of mathematics is something new. It’s not. After the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the United States government provided significant funding for the development of what was termed “New Math” to bring American students up to par with, and to exceed the talents of, their Soviet counterparts. The story is detailed in Christopher Phillips 2014 book, “The New Math, A Political History.”
When the next chapter of Gov. DeSantis’ culture wars rolls out in the biological sciences with “The Origin of the Species & The Descent of Man” by Charles Darwin as its target, I will have another opportunity for satire. I trust that the governor won’t try to hide behind assertions of copyright or proprietary restrictions when announcing his finding that the theory of evolution is riddled with critical race theory.
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Samuel Damren is a retired Detroit lawyer and author of “What Justice Looks Like.”
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