Flower Power Math

During the flower-power years, the whole idea was to make tedious chores like math “fun.” Now, we’re paying the price.

There’s a growing consensus that New Age Math is the major reason why so many of this country’s high school students fail the math portion of their graduation tests.

Columnist Bruce Ramsey noted in the Seattle Times that when a math teacher friend of his received a new Algebra I book with its “Look How Smart I Am” attitude, it didn’t take long for him to realize that it was a “nightmare” composed by a committee.

For those who don’t have a clear impression of what constitutes New-Age Math, here are some telltale signs:
it stresses concepts over calculations; it aims for the “eureka” moment; it asks students to “estimate an answer rather than find the right one;” it asks students to keep “math journals” and provide written explanations of how they found the answers.

One Seattle math teacher suggests that instead of spending valuable class time trying to find five different ways to solve a particular problem, “why not just find one good way?”

Traditional math teachers have gotten so stirred up over this that they have started a group called www.wheresthemath.com. Many of them support using a top-rated curriculum called Saxon Math, which has had superb results. In one district, the fourth grade “pass rate jumped from 68 percent to 91 percent.”

Another alternative used by some teachers is “Singapore Math,” — “a curriculum directly from the nation with the world’s highest test scores.”

Deborah Lambert, special projects director for Accuracy in Media, writes the monthly Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia’s Campus Report newsletter, from which this article is excerpted.