Episode 38: Mutilating Math (March 23, 2022)

Episode 38: Mutilating Math  (March 23, 2022)

New Math in 1964, Reform Math circa 1984, Common Core Math by 2010—arguably these are all the same thing. A long drawn-out attempt to make sure that average Americans do not know much math.

It doesn't matter whether we are talking about the curricula or the books and articles intended to promote the curricula. You encounter the same dense and unfriendly prose. Results in the classrooms are also the same:  lots of complaining children, unhappy parents, and declining math scores throughout the society.

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New Math, musical satire by the brilliant Tom Lehrer, 1965

This video and its many comments will take you back to the era itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HkLsfa67mA
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Why Johnny Can't Add, Morris Kline, 1974

This book, by a real mathematician, is the counterattack against New Math. It's fun, instructive, and still popular after all these years.

https://www.amazon.com/Why-Johnny-Cant-Add-Failure/dp/0312877803

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Let's Fix Education explains to Americans why their schools are so bad. The people in charge prefer mediocrity because they are socialists of one kind or another. If people work together to promote real education, we'll have it.

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