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School Daze: a Critical Review of the African-American Baseline Essa for Science and Mathematics

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School Daze: a Critical Review of the African-American Baseline Essa for Science and Mathematics School Daze: A Critical Review of the African-American Baseline Essa for Science and Mathematics WALTER F. ROWE n the early 1980s the Portland Public School District in Portland, Oregon, was faced with the I task of preparing a court-ordered desegregation plan. A consultant to the school district, Asa Hilliard of Georgia State University, suggested the concept of the "African-American Baseline Essays" as part of Portland's These essays are riddled with pseudoscience plan. and pseudohistory. They The baseline essays were conceived as short stories should not be used for the presenting the history, culture, and contributions of training of teachers or the Africans and African-Americans to art, language, mathe- teaching of students. matics, science, social studies, and music. These essays were to serve as reference and source materials for teach- ers in much the same way as textbooks. The "African- American Baseline Essays" have been adopted by the Portland and Detroit public school systems; they have been seriously considered for adoption by public school systems in Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington, SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1995 27 grouped according to some system. A variety of explanations of the marks have been advanced: They may repre- sent a multiplication table, a game tally, or a calendar. The reader of the mathematics essay is clearly intended to infer that systems of numeration originated in Africa. However, the Ishango bone is a rather recent example of a type of inscribed artifact produced by Paleolithic cul- tures stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the Russian steppes. Most of these artifacts have been found in Europe. These facts are easily gleaned from Alexander Marshack's The Roots of Civilization (1972), a source Lumpkin cites in the mathematics baseline essay and in other writings. Way Down in Egypt Land A key concept running through die "African-American Baseline Essays" is that Egypt was an African civilization. This means something beyond the obvious fact that Egypt is located in Africa. In the science essay, Adams repeats the claim of Senegalese physi- cist Cheikh Anta Diop that the ancient Egyptians were descended from central equatorial and northwestern African ethnic groups (Diop 1982). Physical D.C. (Ortiz de Montellano 1991). by Beatrice Lumpkin, associate profes- anthropologists, however, do not Although the authors of the sor of mathematics at Malcolm X accept Diop's conclusions. Brace et al. "African-American Baseline Essays" College (a community college in (1993) have presented the results of a were supposedly selected because of Chicago). Lumpkin's scholarly writings comparison of 24 craniofacial measure- their knowledge of their specific disci- appear to be confined to brief notes in ments made on skeletal material from plines and because of their expertise in Historia Mathematica and articles in Egypt, Europe, North Africa, Nubia, African and African-American history, Journal of African Civilizations. None Somali, India, Asia, and North the scholarly credentials of the authors of these works contains any original America. The measurements chosen of the science and mathematics essays work in cither mathematics or history. were ones that are known to be geneti- are highly suspect. The author of die Lumpkin is also the author of a histor- cally controlled, but only trivially science essay is Hunter Havelin Adams ical novel and a children's book about adaptive. These researchers concluded III, who is described in the foreword to ancient Egypt. that the ancient Egyptians are much the essays as a "research scientist at more closely related to the populations Argonne National Laboratory." Adams of neolithic Europe, modern Europe, was not, in fact, a research scientist but In the Beginning North Africa, and India than to the a hygiene technician who had only a Beatrice Lumpkin begins her mathe- populations of sub-Saharan Africa. high school diploma (Ortiz de matics essay with a discussion of pre- These conclusions are consistent with Montellano 1991). historic African systems of numera- die research of other physical anthro- The mathematics essay was written tion. The discussion centers on the pologists (see Brace et al. [1993] for a Ishango bone, an artifact excavated in complete list). T h e inclusion of discus- Walter F Rowe is a professor in the Zaire that has been dated to 6500 B.C. sions of Egyptian science and madie- Department of Forensic Sciences, The (Marshack 1972). The Ishango bone is matics in die "African-American Base- George Washington University, Washing- engraved with a series of parallel line Essays" therefore is based on a fun- ton, D.C scratches having varying lengths and 28 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1995 damental misunderstanding of the bio- equinoxes, and the acceleration of from 2.58 to 4.42. Furthermore, die logical relationships among die various gravity. value of pi calculated from die dimen- African subpopulations. One of the figures accompanying the sions of a pyramid depends on die Even if it were true that die ancient science essay also informs the reader slope of its sides. Extant Egyptian Egyptians came from die same racial that the height of die Great Pyramid mathematical papyri reveal problems stock as sub-Saharan Africans, die dis- multiplied by 10' yields 91,651,673 dealing with the slopes of pyramids cussions of Egyptian science and mathe- miles, approximately the mean dis- and use four different values for die matics in die "African-American tance from die earth to die sun. slopes (Gillings 1972). Baseline Essays" would still be worthless This last assertion carries no weight In another section of the science for die training of public school teachers. as evidence that die Egyptians pos- essay Adams discusses what he calls Lumpkin's mathematics essay is merely sessed an unusual level of scientific "psychoenergetics," saying, "The shoddy scholarship, while Adams's sci- knowledge. There is no reason to mul- ancient Egyptians were known die ence essay unites pseudoscientific claims tiply the pyramid height by 10' (other worlthand over atos gethet dimastere desires odf answer)'magic' . If by with fanciful attempts at substantiation. (psi): precognition, psychokinesis, The science essay contains a num- ber of diagrams purporting to demon- The 'scholarly' research displayed in both strate die ancient Egyptians' extraordi- nary scientific and mathematical essays is too shoddy to serve as a model sophistication. For example, Adams for any feather or student." reproduces as a full-page illustration a site plan of die Temple at Luxor with a chance the height multiplied by some remote viewing and other underdevel- human skeleton superimposed on it to simple factor did not give an approxi- oped human capabilities." According demonstrate that the Egyptian archi- mation of the mean distance from the to Adams, psi was an exact science that was used to preserve the world order tects designed die temple so that its earth to die sun, another multiplier and protect the pharaoh. However, if subdivisions would conform to the certainly could have been found that the Egyptians were such powerful proportions of die human body. A cur- would give die distance to the moon, magicians, why were they conquered sory glance at die diagram reveals that to the nearest star, or to the by the Persians? Why were ten revolts while the skeleton's ankles and knees Andromeda nebula. Writing the prod- against the Ptolemies unsuccessful? do indeed match crosswalk on die uct to eight significant figures incor- plan, none of die other joints (hips, rectly implies that the height of die Adams subsequendy informs read- wrists, elbows, or shoulders) corre- Great Pyramid is known with die same ers that ancient Egyptian doctors were sponds to any significant feature of die precision. Adams is evidently unfamil- also experts in the healing technique temple. That die builders intended a iar with the concept of significant fig- now known as Therapeutic Touch. correspondence between die temple ures (taught to high school physics and Readers of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER will and the human skeleton is rendered chemistry students). highly unlikely by another fact: The be familiar with die unsubstantiated portion of the temple that is supposed Adams repeats a standard claim of claims of the advocates of this fringe to represent the cranium, rib cage, Great Pyramid mysticism that die struc- medical therapy. Adams is deeply con- pelvis, and upper legs was built by ture encodes a number of mathematical fused about the distinction between Amenophis III; die remainder of the formulae. For example, die perimeter of science and pseudoscience. temple was built by Ramses II, approx- die base divided by twice die height Adams also has a penchant for wild imately two generations later (Baines supposedly gives die value of pi (which extrapolation from limited data. He and Malek 1980). is 3.14159265). Indeed if one performs discusses a small model of a bird found this computation using the dimensions in a tomb at Saqqara in 1898. When a Adams's science essay contains a of die Great Pyramid, one gets a good replica of this model was made from estimate of pi (3-150685). healthy dollop of Great Pyramid mys- balsa wood and a horizontal stabilizer ticism. According to Adams, die geom- Pyramidologists like Adams charac- (not present in the original) added, the etry of the Great Pyramid encodes as teristically restrict their attention to die replica was able to glide a short dis- follows: Great Pyramid and all
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