Erick Erickson, of Red State, posed the question, is it such 'a horrific idea that we might teach math the way math has always been taught?' The answer is yes. Our citizens have an appalling inability to understand and put into practice even very basic math concepts and the weak performance of our school students on international tests, if anything, understates the problem. This is one area where real conservatism, the desire to retain the 'old ways', produces a deeply flawed analysis. The old ways produce results that suck.
Much is made of the inadequacies of teachers but the growing resistance to the Common Core reveals the inadequacy of parents. To argue, as Erick Erickson does, that parents cannot understand grade school math problems is more revealing than he appears to understand. Erickson is incredulous that common core supporters quote studies claiming that children whose parents do not help them with homework will, over the long term, out perform children whose parents do help them. Sadly, these studies are all too believable. Generational change in something as central and contentious as math education will inevitably be disruptive and slow but the status quo is unsustainable if we wish to remain a first rank nation.
I will say, when most people I know say the "old way" they are talking of pre the new math....the old old way. What amazed me when I read some of the way schools are following the Common Core math standard is how they seem like a retread of the New Math. Don't make kids memorize basic facts, most argue, it will impinge on their ability to think. Most countries that outrank us in math (I do not have the citations anymore, its been a while) follow the "old" old method.
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