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A first-generation immigrant who left a career in finance to follow his passion for teaching has written an eye-opening new memoir of his experience navigating what he calls “wokeness” in the U.S. education system.
Writing under the pen name Yellow Heights, his new book, “Unbalanced: Memoir of an Immigrant Math Teacher,” is part personal reflection and part critique of the left-wing culture he says he encountered while studying at one of the nation’s top-ranked universities and later teaching at a private high school.
Heights, who verified his identity and education credentials with Fox News Digital, requested anonymity to discuss the book, which speaks candidly about his alma mater and former employer.
The book, which recently received a Maxy Award honoring independent and self-published titles, is available on Amazon, and excerpts are posted for free on his Substack.
An immigrant math teacher shares his experience with the “woke” education system in the U.S. in a new book. (iStock via Getty)
“This book recounts his Kafkaesque experiences at education school, where he was labeled a White supremacist simply for asking questions,” the book’s Amazon listing description states. “He shares firsthand accounts of teaching math at a public and a private school, offering a panoramic view of the issues surrounding wokeness, coddling, and the lack of accountability in education.”
Heights said he grew up in China in the 1970s in a poor town, where education was seen as the only way to escape poverty. After earning an engineering degree, he came to the United States on a scholarship to study climate science. He said he eventually built a successful career in the tech and finance industries before pivoting toward something he found more fulfilling: helping young people by teaching them his favorite subject — math.
He enrolled in a one-year graduate teaching program in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic and a nationwide reckoning over race and equity dominated the education landscape.
In his new memoir, a retired math teacher says he was taught that “math is political” in his teacher training program at a top U.S. university. (Photo illustration by Ian Jopson/Fox News Digital )
Heights said that from the beginning of the program, his assignments and lessons focused on social justice activism rather than on learning and teaching math.
He wrote about being targeted during his teacher training program for asking critical questions — including being labeled as a “White supremacist” and “traitor” to people of color.
After a lecture on “desettling expectations in science education,” Heights said he and another classmate asked skeptical questions about the lesson plan. The instructor later warned the class not to ask questions about the content, calling that a “deeply violent move” that promoted “White supremacy.”
Heights said he was stunned by the reaction and could only take away that the new warning was directed toward him and his classmate.
“This reminds me of a practice in the Cultural Revolution in China,” Heights told Fox News Digital. “It’s called a ‘Big-Letter Poster.’ They basically started to criticize you in public without naming, and it basically has a very strong effect of shutting up any view that’s not considered politically correct.”
A retired teacher who grew up in China said the environment in his university classes reminded him of what his family experienced during China’s Cultural Revolution. (“Pictures from History” via Getty Images)
“We’re students,” he said. “We’re supposed to ask questions … That kind of tactic really killed my curiosity.”
After that incident, Heights said he avoided speaking up. The episode echoed other incidents he experienced in the graduate program, he said, where students were expected to recite the “correct” ideological answer and not question it.
Heights also described being attacked in another class for defending standardized testing.
While acknowledging standardized tests have their flaws, he argued they also offer an objective way for students from poor or immigrant backgrounds to succeed.
“Without something like a standardized test, I wouldn’t have any opportunity even to escape poverty in China,” he said, adding that while the tests aren’t perfect, they are valuable in providing an objective measure. “Instead of saying they’re really bad, they should be abolished — what I was saying was that you should improve it.”
The teacher recalled being berated for defending the merits of standardized testing in another class during his graduate program. (MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
“I was basically spending the next 15 minutes defending myself,” he said. “People accused me of lacking empathy and even called me a ‘traitor’ to people of color.”
He wrote in his book reflecting on the experience: “I realized that my sympathies for the school administrators and trust in objective measurements were the issues. The discussion turned a rational issue into a moral one, where I failed to stand in solidarity with those disadvantaged by standardized testing due to my lack of empathy for the vulnerable,” he said.
He also recalled another classroom incident one day after the death of George Floyd. He said a progressive instructor was bullied by classmates for “her lack of conscience” and brought to tears after trying to continue a lesson after allowing a discussion about Floyd’s death.
Demonstrators carry a banner during an “I Can’t Breathe” Silent March For Justice in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Sunday, March 7, 2021. (Emilie Richardson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT DEFENDS TEACHERS CRITICIZED FOR ASSIGNING BOOK WITH PROFANITY TO STUDENTS
After graduating in 2021, Heights began teaching math at a private high school. But the same politicized culture from the university soon appeared at his new school, which he said emphasized equity and justice in its grading practices over learning outcomes and objective standards.
He believes such practices harm students and lead to poor outcomes. “If you’re always comfortable, you don’t end up learning much,” he told Fox News Digital. “We need a certain amount of tension to learn.”
One such dispute over a student led to a complaint being filed and Heights being placed on a “performance improvement plan.” He said he also received a memo mentioning his “lack of empathy for students” and the need to be “more equitable.”
“I was totally shocked,” he said, explaining that he had received positive feedback about his teaching before the incident, which happened at the end of the semester.
He ultimately decided to resign because he was burned out and no longer trusted the administration.
“It was the last straw,” he said. “I decided to take a break, and it’s hard to continue in that sort of environment.”
Heights said he has continued teaching math part-time, though health challenges may prevent him from returning to a full classroom role in the future.
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He said the Maxy Award recognition has been “great validation” as a non-native English speaker who struggles with writing. He said he’s been encouraged by positive feedback from parents, educators and immigrants who’ve faced similar challenges in the American education system.
Heights said he hopes his book encourages readers to think critically about how ideology and identity politics have shaped American classrooms — though he believes things may be improving.
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“I know it’s a very, very hard thing to change,” he said. “But it starts small, with people knowing more and feeling like they can freely discuss it.”
“I think the schools actually are all changing a little bit for the better,” he added. “People realize the coddling and the low requirements have produced undesirable results.”
Kristine Parks is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Read more.
