I was one of those children, despite having been educated in the top-ranked public school district in Massachusetts (Dover-Sherborn Regional High School). Notably, we failed to give American children math sense, a natural and instinctive dexterity with numbers. Math education became a series of skills served up in bits and pieces but never as part of a unified, mathematical whole. Cue the era of multiplication-table work sheets and timed math facts, tasks that still make up the bulk of elementary school math homework assignments.īetween 19, in large part because of the advent of No Child Left Behind, state standards and the testing necessary to measure states' progress, math education became what Danielson refers to as a "mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum." We teach many topics in each grade but at a superficial level. To rectify this, the education pendulum swung back in the other direction, toward rote memorization. While we were busy chasing those lofty goals, we failed to educate most students in the basic foundations of math. Consequently, American math education prioritized the education of professional scientists and mathematicians who could get satellites in orbit and send men to the moon. Math teacher Christopher Danielson outlines the rest of the story in his book, "Common Core Math for Parents for Dummies," and it goes something like this: Math education in America has evolved in response to concerns about our international competitiveness, first with Europe, and later, with Russia and its space program. The simple answer to why math education has changed, "Common Core State Standards," is only part of the story. "What kind of mother can't understand first-grade math?"įelix and I spent the next half-hour engaged in a spirited discussion about the state of math education in America how we got here, why it's changed and where experts on math education hope it's taking us. "I can't even help my own child do her homework, it's so frustrating, and I feel so stupid," she said. Two years ago I walked into a car rental return center in Charlotte and interrupted Adrianette Felix mid-rant.
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