2852 Heading back for "old math?"

Someone in the Ohio Department of Education (or whoever hands out teaching licenses) noticed I had no college math on my transcript back in the early 1970s. Apparently in the 60s, someone decided math wasn't needed for a "liberal" education. So I went over to Ohio State and signed up for Math 101 at the beginning of the push for "new math." Fortunately, the instructor was not a grad student from India or China (although we had some that subbed), but a math teacher from West High School in Columbus who was going to grad school. It wasn't too bad, and he was an excellent teacher, but I'm awfully glad I didn't learn the basics that way. I think I got a B+. I'd hate to haul out a calculator if I needed to figure out whether to buy a package of 8 rather than 12 of paper towels. I'm not sure how the "new math" of the 70s compares to TERC, the term used today for math instruction that doesn't use drill and memorization.

Today's WSJ has an article on the scores of American students in math, and how some schools are offering "Singapore Math" based on the methods used in Singapore, whose students score the highest. They memorize, don't use calculators, and work problems out in their heads. I couldn't even come close to figuring the problems presented in the article.

Here's a site comparing, Singapore, TERC and Saxon (which is probably closer to what I learned as a kid). So this war among math educators and even homeschoolers will make Iraq look like kids' play.

And all this leads to a website called The Math Worksheet. You select the type of problems (i.e. fractions), the level of difficulty, and whether you want the answer sheet. There is also a subscription option where you pay for quantity. I don't know what method this is called, but it looks like a good review for someone like me.

HT Dawn treader

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