Math is math, sure, but teaching is teaching. You don't try to teach kindergarteners in a college lecture setting and then proclaim that they're stupid and lazy troublemakers for not being able to follow along.
You're reverting to ideological truisms against "racial justice" to non-specifically oppose an article which says that teachers should treat students with both fairness and kindness, and provides examples that are completely sensible.
You see, but this is the type of math they are teaching:
One thing we understand from Universal Design for Learning is that there are multiple ways a kid can express their knowing. And so if you know 2+2=4, one way you can express your knowing is by writing it. Another way you can express your knowing is by discussing it. A third way is by creating a model that shows it. A fourth way is by illustrating it and a fifth way is by performing a play. But in too many schools, only one way is considered legitimate. So if you write it, you get an A and that's it. There might be 100 kids in the school who know 2+2=4, but if only two of those kids can write it, then only two of those kids will receive As. That is profoundly discriminatory.
The thing is, a crucial part of math is being able to write it and communicate it with others, at both a higher level and a basic arithmetic level. If my bill for services takes the form of a play, that isn't useful.
The person seems to have forgotten that part of knowledge is the ability to communicate it in a standard, useable form. And that's ultimately important. It's why essays and writing assignments need to exist. Was I crap at them in school, and would have done better in school without them? Sure. Did I have high concept ideas that I wasn't able to express in an essay? Yep. But expressing yourself through writing is a vital part of modern communication, and needs be taught. It sucked to learn it, but it was hugely important that I do so.
Also, his idea that kids shouldn't be shamed for not handing in homework. That's idiotic. Shaming a kid for not doing homework is vital. Basically, homework (including busywork) has the importance of teaching responsibility and organization. It's one of the first times a kid has responsibility. And part of teaching that to a kid is having a variety of consequences for the kid to try to teach them responsibility, so that kids who don't respond to some stimuli respond to others. And some of the kids respond to punishment of no recess, some respond to shame, etc. It's important to engage kids on all these factors.
Finally, the guy just comes across as a leftist blowhard. Calling 'falling behind' a social construct, and thus dismissing it, is stupid. Of course its a social construct, but that's not a reason to dismiss it. The question should be is it a
useful social construct, and it is. It allows teachers to sort students on what they need to learn, it can inform principals which teachers aren't doing their jobs (not that they can do much because of unions), etc.