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December 05, 2005
Why US Kids Are Mathematically Screwed Up
Why is the National Science Foundation pushing a K-5 mathematics curriculum that strongly discourages the learning of basic math facts (4 + 8 = 12), denigrates the values of computational algorithms (like long division), and encourages the use of calculators?
Bill Quirk (via Mathematically Correct and The Education Wonks) has the details:
Developed by TERC, with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Investigations in Number, Data, and Space purports to be "a complete K-5 mathematics curriculum that supports all students as they learn to think mathematically." The NSF is now spending millions to promote implementation of the TERC program. School Boards find it difficult to say no. They rationalize: "it's just a different way to teach elementary math, and the NSF backs it, so how bad can it be?"
Very, very bad indeed.
They claim their program moves “beyond arithmetic” to offer "significant math," including important ideas from probability, statistics, 3-D geometry, and number theory.
But math is a vertically-structured knowledge domain. Learning more advanced math isn't possible without first mastering traditional pencil-and-paper arithmetic. This truth is clearly demonstrated by the shallow details of the TERC fifth grade program. Their most advanced "Investigations" offer probability without multiplying fractions, statistics without the arithmetic mean, 3-D geometry without formulas for volume, and number theory without prime numbers.
This sounds like a bad parody of "progressive" educational theory, but it all appears to be true. Can you believe this:
Consider the "Sample of Ads Investigation," at the end of the TERC fifth grade. Students are given a 48-page newspaper and a supply of "Recording Strips" that are premarked with "familiar fractions," such as 1/4 and 2/3. They begin by deciding to sample one-third of the 48 pages. After using a calculator to divide 48 by 3, they select 16 sample pages and use eyeball estimation to guess the fraction of ads found on each sample page. Then, using one 3-inch “Recording Strip” for each sample page, students color the fraction of ads, cut out the colored portions, and tape them onto a 48-inch length of adding machine tape, “starting from one end of the tape and putting the pieces right next to each other.” Students then estimate the fraction of ads for the full 16-page sample by folding the 48-inch strip to estimate the fraction corresponding to the 16 colored-in pieces.Why not add the 16 fractions and then divide the sum by 16? TERC students never learn about dividing fractions, and they never learn general methods for adding fractions. They do learn a hands-on method for adding two proper fractions with denominators less than 7, but this paper-folding method doesn't work if the denominator of the sum fraction isn't also less than 7.
All emphases are mine.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph. These are fifth grade students--and they are coloring little strips of paper to "estimate" the addition of fractions!
This is the legacy of "progressive" education?
UPDATE: My wife said, in response to my rant about this idiocy: "I really don't want my heart surgeon [for example] to think that 'close enough' is acceptable. I don't want him to have to color on some little strips of paper in the middle of the operating room to get an answer." Her favorite idea is to find a lawyer to work up a class action lawsuit against our local school district: "I paid all this tax money and my son can't read or write."
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