Max Genest - February 05, 2026


Ontario's Government Decided Math Is Racist


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

145.56834

Word Count

721

Sentence Count

47


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Alright, this one is especially stupid, so brace yourselves.
00:00:03.600 So, you know how Ontario students have been struggling in math for years and years with
00:00:08.800 a series of low test scores coming in, coming in, piling up?
00:00:12.900 Yeah, that's still happening.
00:00:14.700 But why?
00:00:15.640 Well, this might be a little explainer.
00:00:17.760 Dozens of school boards across Ontario have decided the real problem is not math itself,
00:00:23.440 it's apparently social injustice.
00:00:25.420 Who knew that was the root cause?
00:00:27.740 Who knew that was the reason on why everyone is so bad at math?
00:00:31.700 Now, for example, in the Simcoe County School District, teacher training materials show math being taught through something called Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy, or CRRP.
00:00:42.380 By the way, credit goes to Juno News, who reported on this after getting a hold of the documents.
00:00:48.860 Anyways, what is CRRP?
00:00:50.420 Well, different school boards have different versions of this approach, where essentially math class is not just about math anymore.
00:00:59.000 You see, lessons are built around race, identity, and social issues.
00:01:03.580 So, for example, instead of focusing on the basics, a stats lesson might ask students to analyze racial disparities and talk about equity rather than just learning about, I don't know, how to calculate averages or percentages.
00:01:19.160 because, hey, who needs that in a stats class?
00:01:22.920 So the entire argument behind this is that math is somehow tied to race.
00:01:27.980 The training even claims some students experience math trauma
00:01:32.100 and that tying math to identity makes learning more effective.
00:01:37.060 They also say students learn differently based on who they are.
00:01:41.800 So white middle class students are described as having advantages.
00:01:45.860 Others are said to face systemic barriers.
00:01:49.160 So, if students are struggling, the explanation is not bad teachers or weak instructions.
00:01:57.120 It is that the foundations of the system itself is somehow built on racism.
00:02:03.180 And once you accept this idea in your head, the solution becomes very apparent.
00:02:08.300 Change math class so it is about more than math.
00:02:12.140 The materials even include examples.
00:02:14.200 In one lesson tied to math and data interpretation, students are asked to examine health statistics through a social justice lens.
00:02:25.120 Differences in cataract rates between racial groups are presented as evidence of racism.
00:02:31.920 And from there, the lesson moves into concepts like equity, privilege, and systemic discrimination.
00:02:38.740 But does this new teaching method around race even work?
00:02:43.560 No, it doesn't. And I am so shocked. Who could have guessed that? Who could have seen that one
00:02:49.300 coming? Data from boards like Peel and Waterloo shows that students from different racial
00:02:55.980 backgrounds perform about the same in math. And in some cases, minority students actually do a
00:03:02.440 whole lot better. So math results are not tied to race. And after years of de-streaming math,
00:03:09.260 dumping millions of taxpayer dollars into it and rolling out these teaching methods across the
00:03:15.180 entire province, the numbers barely changed. Before all of this, 61% of grade 3 students
00:03:22.660 met the standard. Grade 6 was around 50%. Grade 9 applied math was even worse. And after all these
00:03:30.920 reforms, what happened? Grade 3 is at 64%. Grade 6 is basically the same. Grade 9 is just slightly
00:03:38.840 better. And there is still no evidence for race correlation. And wait a second, who started this?
00:03:45.740 When did this start? The provincial government of Ontario is directly responsible. The Ministry
00:03:51.600 of Education has been pushing this approach since 2017, and by 2020, it was baked into the math
00:03:59.240 curriculum. Even the Ontario Human Rights Commission raised concerns a few years ago,
00:04:04.860 warning that these kinds of teaching methods were linked to falling literacy scores and calling for
00:04:12.280 a return to evidence-based teaching. But here we are. Social justice lessons are still showing up
00:04:19.420 in math classes, and kids are still falling behind. It is more clear than ever that Ontario
00:04:25.900 classrooms do not need less math. In fact, they need more math, better math, taught clearly and
00:04:31.720 directly. Because when ideology takes priority over the fundamentals, we all pay for it. By far,
00:04:38.400 human beings are the most valuable resource to the planet. And when we do not properly invest
00:04:44.240 in ourselves, the consequences are especially detrimental. It severely affects everyone and
00:04:50.100 everything. I cannot believe I am saying this in the year of 2026, but let's bring math back
00:04:56.340 into the classrooms.