Obama’s Math Policy?
Posted by Lorren on October 12, 2008
Last year, I wrote about an awful math program called Everyday Mathematics. Instead of teaching children the fundamental concepts of multiplication and division using normal algorithms, Everyday Mathematics encourages children to “figure out their own solution strategies” and teaches convoluted algorithms that leave a lot of room for making mistakes, and also make it more difficult for parents to help their kids with their homework. They also encourage the use of calculators over learning the strategies. Students don’t learn the fundamentals as well using this book series.
Although Everyday Mathematics has a lot of critics, Barak Obama must like it, because he has appointed one of the creators of Everyday Mathematics as his education advisor. This is a copy of a message that I found by Weapons of Math Destruction.
With an election coming up, please get involved in the process. Math education is a non-partisan issue. We need to be globally competitive. That said, I must warn you that Senator Obama has brought onto his staff one of the creators of Everyday Math as his education advisor. This is a disastrous program. The constructivist philosophy will poison our nation. Many of you do not get my regular emails from my main site promoting math in Utah at www.oaknorton.com. I want to at least give you the link to an excellent published study and I highly encourage you to read it. Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching http://www.cogtech.usc.edu/publications/kirschner_Sweller_Clark.pdf And now on to this week’s comic…
http://www.weaponsofmathdestruction.com/
John Dewey said,
It is not quite accurate to say that Obama appointed one of the creators of Everyday Math. He appointed Jeanne Century who works for a U of Chicago organization out of which Everyday Math was developed. She rubs elbows and probably works for one of the creators, but she herself was not part of it. On all other counts, yes, she is most probably pro-Everyday Math and pro-inquiry based learning, talks about 21st century skills as if they are different than the skills we needed to learn for the 20th century, and of course talks about “critical thinking”. Like she knows what she’s talking about.
I wrote an open letter to Sen. Obama about his pick. It is located here: http://ednews.org/articles/26924/1/Open-letter-to-Barack-Obama-from-John-Dewey/Page1.html
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