Flashback!
The school’s math department is providing a new scaled-back math class for freshmen who are apparently arriving on campus lacking “foundational skills” in high school math basics like geometry and algebra—that is, 9th grade math.
The story is actually from last September. We posted it, but no one seemed interested. It’s making the rounds now, possibly because The NY Post published it along with some popular X influencers. Maybe it’s more timely now.
Harvard is blaming – what else? – the pandemic for the poor performance of students they accepted, likely based on DEI. They should not have ditched standardized testing requirements during the pandemic to satisfy the un-American Marxist-based equity nonsense. The real crime is that students who worked hard to get into this college and had top grades were deprived of the education they rightfully earned. Harvard is depriving the country of the highest achievers.
As an educator, I doubt the poor skills result from the pandemic. For the most part, the highly successful students manage just fine no matter the circumstances. When I taught the gifted, they had read the text within the first three weeks and moved on to additional research.
“Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum,” Harvard’s director of introductory math, Brendan Kelly, told The Harvard Crimson. “We want to make sure that students are on a path to success starting from their first day.”
The new course, called Math MA, is one year long and meets five days a week, compared with the regular two days. According to the department’s website, “extra support will target foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and quantitative reasoning that will help [students] unlock success.”
Harvard considers itself elite, but by accepting students according to immutable characteristics instead of merit, it has to adapt and lower standards.
They’re committing academic suicide to give preferential treatment to students who aren’t white or Chinese and also not qualified. They are doing no one any favors.
The Wokes who teach in Harvard can’t admit their error, so now they have to give them good grades and sing their praises.
This is an insult to minority doctors, lawyers, researchers, etc. People will look askance and wonder.
Harvard is denying admission to students with perfect SAT scores and AP calculus credit, while also admitting students who need remedial math. pic.twitter.com/Q7T0IcGU36
— John D. Cook (@JohnDCook) March 19, 2025
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