A Condensed History of Math By: Anthony Pellegrino

Let me share with you the following which illustrates what has transpired in the history of math education:

1. Traditional Math (1960)

A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

2. New Math (1970).

A logger exchanges set L of lumber for set M of money. The cardinality of set M is 100 and each element is worth $1. Make 100 dots representing the elements of set M. The set C of costs contains 20 fewer points than set M. Represent set C as a subset of set M and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set P of profits?

3. General Math Concepts (1980)
A logger sells a truckload of wood for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the 20.

4. Outcome-Based Education (1990)

By cutting down a beautiful forest of trees a logger makes $20. What do you think of making a living this way? Topic for discussion: How do the forest birds and squirrels feel?

When I first read this, I was inclined to smile, but then I realized this is a tragedy. The losers are our children who instead of learning mathematics are spoon-fed “fuzzymath” which ill prepares them for the real world. What happened to learning math tables and learning to do math functions without calculators? What happened to the concept that math requires memorization and practice of numerical functions until they become automatic?

Chester Finn, former assistant secretary of education in the Bush administration, admits that one of the most influential groups to change the course of teaching math has been The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics to whom teachers, curriculum developers, and administrators have always looked for expert advice. They and other university educationalists who are not mathematicians have been setting standards. They are progressive math educators.

In the early 1900’s, students attended specialized teacher-training institutions. These schools were primarily concerned that prospective teachers actually mastered the subjects they were planning to teach. Math teachers knew math, reading teachers knew reading, etc. Content was primary and teaching methods were secondary.

Gradually teachertraining institutions or “normal schools” were absorbed into universities. For awhile the math department taught math and the department of education taught methods. Then the math department lost most of the responsibility for teaching content to the educationalists.

In order to pump up their faculties and budgets, the educationalists began to degrade the importance of facts. The teachers were taught in the education schools to denounce traditional knowledge transmission and the building of remembered knowledge based on discipline-specific facts and skills. Today this is apparent in the other subject matters, not just math. Think why many children cannot read today. This brainwashing has crossed over into every subject matter.

The end result is that today most of the younger teachers in the classroom are a product of these changes. Schools now stress child-centered learning and general skills over subject matter. This means students “talk more about math” than practicing actual math skills.

I graduated from Kutztown State Teachers College in 1958 and recall well the intensive study I had to go through in my two major teaching subjects–English and history. These two subjects were drilled in me. Before I could graduate I had to pass extensive testing in my two major studies. Today my small teacher-training college is a major university and has lost its original mission of training subject-matter teachers. Instead it trains educationalists.

Find out what is being taught and why in your child’s math class. Visit your child’s teacher and ask what is the math being taught. (continued)