Next up: math textbooks.
Really, this shouldn’t be that hard. Pre-calculus math hasn’t changed much over the past several decades. But it all comes down to the perverse incentives in the public-school monopoly, in which having a worthless degree in “education” is more important than having actual useful knowledge to impart to your charges.
Pre-calculus math hasn’t changed much over the past several decades.
Can’t we make a stronger statement than that? Like, that it hasn’t changed much in about 1250 years sinca Al Khwarizmi?
All in all, I don’t recall much admiration from my schooldays towards the writers of textbooks in general. There were a few good ones that stood out, but the vast majority were exactly alike, and approached problems from exactly the same direction, and provided little marginal benefit.
While the math hasn’t changed, the curriculum has. Today’s math books must support multiculturalism and political correctness. The actual teaching of math is secondary
TEMPE, AZ – Marianne Jennings, a professor at Arizona State University, discovered that her teenage daughter received an A in algebra but could not solve an equation. The textbook, called Secondary Math: An Integrated Approach, includes poetry of Maya Angelou, pictures of President Clinton and Mali wood carvings, and photos of students named Tatuk and Esteban “who offer my daughter thoughts on life.” Jennings dubbed the text “Rain Forest Algebra.”
The goal of “New-New Math,” as it is sometimes called, is to move students beyond mathematical drills so they can “self-discover” mathematical theory and concepts. Students, as a result, do not learn basic skills, and teachers are no longer authority figures qualified to impart objective knowledge. Correct answers are unimportant. In Secondary Math: An Integrated Approach, equations are not mentioned until page 165, and the first solution of a linear equation, reached by guessing, appears on page 218.
Exercises in New-New Math have little to do with math. For example, 2nd graders learn data collection by drawing pictures of their lunch, cutting out the pictures, then placing them in paper bags. Mathematical “concepts” often are laden with feelings, self-esteem, dumbing down, and political correctness.
Critics liken this type of math to Whole Language, which does not teach children reading skills but rather to guess at words. Likewise, in “whole math,” students frequently guess at the answers.
“Although the Wicked Whole-Language Witch is dying, the Whole-Math Witch isn’t even ill,” said Wayne Bishop, professor of mathematics at California State University at Los Angeles.
This change in focus began in 1989 when the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommended a national overhaul of teaching math to curb falling test scores and renew interest in math. The new math would make the subject more meaningful by changing the emphasis from drills, rules, and rote learning to “real-world problem solving.”
The author seems to be blaming capitalism more than anything else, while giving the “educators” who buy these pieces of crap only “partial” blame. That doesn’t make sense to me, as these text book publishers aren’t forcing anyone to buy their product at gun point. I don’t care how good the marketing or sales departments are, you can’t get people to purchase something they don’t really want (see Volt, Chevy).
Steven Pinker has taken on the “let them discover the concepts” math learning FUD, but apparently not too many have learned the lesson. I remember my Calc 1 class in college (my podunk high school had no math higher than trig, although my teacher, knowing that I was heading off to college to study engineering, let me self-study basic linear algebra during the last several weeks); I could do the problems reasonably well, but the deep understanding light bulb didn’t really turn on until I had done enough problems so that I could focus on the concept instead of the mechanics.
IOW, if you’re not Gauss or Newton or Leibniz or Euler, then you had better do the drill. This is why so many parents and former students swear by the Saxon books.