Teacher: I Don’t Teach Newton Because He’s White
Naomi Friedan, who teaches science in a Sacramento high school, has published a guest article in The Washington Post, arguing that her students shouldn’t learn about Isaac Newton because he’s a dead, white male with questionable political views.
According to the teacher, she feels uncomfortable teaching Newton’s laws of motion, universal gravitation, optics, and calculus because her minority students shouldn’t be expected to study inventions of a “a long-dead, British guy” (Friedan herself is white). And while Newton is widely recognized as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution, Friedan says he only is regarded that way because “some white men” ordained it and he can easily be replaced.
“Why not teach the scientific beliefs out of Africa, which includes an equally relevant oral tradition about the movements of celestial bodies?” she suggests. “Why not teach about the refraction of light based on oral storytelling from Latin America, about the speed of sound as imagined by the wise men of Samoa, or about the Earth being a pie resting on the back of an elephant or a serpent, as depicted in the folklore of Southeast Asia? Many, many of our students come from these traditions where people don’t even believe in gravitation or that the sky is not held up by really tall pillars at the corners of the Earth. Perhaps we no longer have the time to study the Western canon that so many of us know and hold dear.”
Friedan bolsters her case for dumping Sir Isaac by saying that minority students, who dominate her classroom, deserve to study their own cultures rather than being exposed to “Eurocentrism.” At the same time, she believes that white students should be mandated to explore cultures other than their own.
“It is our imperative duty to open up white students to a world of diverse, mind-boggling scientific beliefs that they may never encounter anywhere else in their lives,” she says. “Take, for example, the wonderful world of Cargo Cult theories. They changed my life and my entire outlook, and I want to share that wealth with my students.”
Despite holding a science degree and describing herself as a voracious online researcher, Friedan’s desire to purge the dusty old Isaac Newton from her classroom is partly based on her own difficulties understanding his theories. She confesses that she has a “personal disinterest in analyzing theories developed in the dark times of rampant colonialism and capitalist exploitation of the workers.”
“Many Native Americans believed that the world rested on the shell of a giant turtle, and who are we to invade their land and tell them that the Earth is round?” says Friedan. “Where was Isaac Newton during that shameful period of our history? He was busy becoming president of the Royal Society. Was he afraid to jeopardize his career by speaking up against the imperialist oppression of minorities, or did he benefit from his government’s colonialist policies? Whatever the case, none of his theories include a single word about social justice or economic equality. It’s only fair that in the 21st century we make amends and expel this dead, white, imperialist, and cowardly male from our science textbooks.”
While The Washington Post admits that Friedan’s view “is shared by a lot of people in and out of education,” the piece has stirred a fiery and mostly hostile response, prompting the paper to publish a rebuttal from another science teacher, who argues that it’s absurd to throw Newton into the trash simply because he’s dead, white, male, and may have supported British colonialism.
“Ethnically diverse students don’t tip over and fall due to the effects of gravity?” the rebuttal asks rhetorically. “Or their low-rider cars with hydraulic suspension don’t move according to Newtonian mechanics? Or their cell phone cameras do not use lenses that refract light? Or will the new Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, which they can’t wait to download on their computers, not expose them to the concept of spherical planets and heliocentric solar systems? Don’t they deserve to be prepared and not act surprised at the absence of a giant space turtle holding the world on its back?”
In the spirit of fairness, The Post editorial attempted to find middle ground between these two equally valid views by saying that “living in the 21st century as enlightened and open-minded individuals, we duly condemn Newton’s backward, Eurocentric politics, but to dismiss his scientific discoveries on the grounds that life in Europe 300 years ago wasn’t as diverse and not as open to post-modern cultural, artistic, and sexual experimentation is to dismiss every important scientific discovery made by Africans, First Americans, Polynesians, Muslims, and for that matter, everything that wasn’t discovered in whatever time defined as ‘NOW.'”
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The Peoples Cube.
