The Second Great Math Rebellion
Few truisms exist in the politics of education, but you can usually count on two things. When reformers seize control of the policy agenda, whether at the local, state, or national level, they almost always go too far in jettisoning what they don't like and too far in embracing the new, unproven practices they favor. Not only is the baby thrown out with the bathwater, but the baby and the bathwater are frequently replaced by something bizarre.
In 1989, a group of experts in the field of math education, under the auspices of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, launched a campaign to change the content and teaching of mathematics. In the intervening eight years, the reforms have been slowly seeping into the schools, ostensibly in an effort to raise standards. Now the earmarks of a grassroots rebellion are appearing. From coast to coast, articles in newspapers and magazines report parents organizing against their districts' math programs. Op-ed pieces are regularly popping up with horror stories about a warm, fuzzy mathematics that values student happiness over student competency. Web sites are buzzing with protest. California is scrambling to write new state standards so it can undo the damage of dancing on "the cutting edge" of math reform. Many of the critics are political conservatives, but not all. This past summer, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to warn the nation about the spread of "whacko algebra," declaring that "it is not just nonsense, it is unfocused nonsense."
We've been through this before. In the
1960s, the curriculum known as the New Math was routed from classrooms
by angry parents and teachers. Parents didn't recognize the mathematics
that children were bringing home from school, and teachers found it
almost impossible to instruct students on the strange new topics
recommended by reformers. Despite the support of the most prominent
reformers of its day, including the NCTM, the New Math fizzled when it
hit real classrooms with...
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