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There's a very well written article (editorial?) in the June 20th Wall 
Street Journal titled "Ethnomathematics". I haven't found a way to make 
the text accessible, but it's well worth a read. I quote the last two 
paragraphs belows. The article is in the first section of the paper, 
near the bottom of the page, and somewhere towards the later half of the 
section.

========================================
Ethnomathematics by Diane Ravitch.
...
This fusion of politcal correctness and relevance may be the next big 
thing to rock mathematics education, appealing as it does to political 
activists and to ethnic chauvinists.

It seems terribly old-fashioned to point out that the countries that 
regularly beat our students in international tests of mathematics do not 
use the subject to steer students into political action. They teach them 
instead that mathematics is a universal language that is as relevant and 
meaningful to Tokyo as it is in Paris, Nairobi, and Chicago. The 
students who learn ths universal language well will be the builders ahd 
shapers of the technology in the 21st century. The students in American 
classes who fall prey to the political designs of their teachers and 
professors will not.


-- 
              Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
                  (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
                   Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

                    "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes."
                            -- Mark Twain

                         Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>

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