Pi Day turns 35: The circle of mathematics needs more diversity, advocates say

[Admin]

Pi Day began as a way to get students engaged in mathematics. As NASA and other space industry observers celebrate circles, diversity initiatives are coming into focus.

Pi Day turns 35: The circle of mathematics needs more diversity, advocates say : Read more

 

[Lara]

This is the most embarrassingly forced article I've ever witnessed. All that schooling and this is how it turned out. Devastating.

Diversity will not change science at all. if you arbitrarily force it, which is what is suggested and it's what mudd and Caltech at least are doing, science will suffer.

If a kid can't do math at 20 they aren't going to recover just because you shove them into a top university.

Telling particle physicists to shove their latest fantasy up their XYZ will. Slapping politicians and celebrities and political actors masquerading as scientists will.

 

[Brandon]

Thank you Lara. I'm so sick of these religious "DEI" zealots making everything about anything it's not. Either stick to space or I'll find another place to get my content.

 

[PHS]

Why does everything now have to involve diversity, race, gender/pronouns, etc.? Now Pi Day? Are you kidding. This type of rhetoric is actually dividing people and fueling racism. Thanks, Ms. Howell, you just ruined my Pi Day holiday.

 

[murgatroyd]

"Under-representation", bla bla bla. Would be more believable if it included the NBA and asked for more white players to be paid "basketball money".

Or if women demanded to be proportionately represented as workers in the sanitation department, doing the sh*ttiest (literally) jobs.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

OK, let's start with the fact that we do need more scientists and engineers working on constructive things for our society. And, I can addd, having worked with scientists and engineers of all sorts of ethnicities and pronouns, that the ability to do good work in STEM fields is not limited to any ethnicity or pronoun.

That said, I can also see that there are ethnic and pronoun bias effects in the education and hiring of students. So, I do support the work to make it apparent to young peope of all types that they can learn STEM subjects and they can get jobs in those areas.

But, people are not all the same. Even within a group that are the same race, gender, religion, nationality, etc. etc. etc., there will be a variety of aptitudes and disinterests. Not everybody is naturally good at math or logic, just like not everybody is good at music or dance.

For a healthy society, we need those who are interested in and good at useful activities to all get their chances to pursue their loves and be productive and happy. That is what "equity" is really about - not forcing indentical results on all people.

So, I do support government efforts to demonstrate that STEM education and jobs are available to all sorts of people. But, we need to be careful that we make sure that we maintain the standards of performance that are essential to success in STEM activites, which are measurable. If we accept lesser performance from "minorities" just because they are minorities in particluar fields, the whole process will backfire in that it will re-enforce the biases of those who are biased, and make it harder for others of those minorities to gain education and job opportunities in the future.

From my own experience, I am convinced that there are individuals of every ethnicity and pronoun that you can name who can do STEM and do it well.