There’s an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times about the ineffectiveness of “fuzzy math” instruction:
One of the most infamous fads took root in the late 1980’s, when many schools moved away from traditional mathematics instruction, which required drills and problem solving. The new system, sometimes derided as “fuzzy math,” allowed children to wander through problems in a random way without ever learning basic multiplication or division. As a result, mastery of high-level math and science was unlikely. The new math curriculum was a mile wide and an inch deep, as the saying goes, touching on dozens of topics each year.
I was shocked about this time last year when I was substitute teaching for a few weeks at the level of math juniors and seniors were working on. “We did that in fourth grade,” was K’s response.
K, studying for a national licensing exam for the last few weeks, recently revealed that the math she was working was “fun.” Matrices and such. “When did you learn that?” I asked, fearful of how her response might indict American education.
“Well, we started learning about it in primary school.” Around seventh grade (at the time, primary school in Polska was K-8).
Now some American educators are aiming for algebra by the seventh grade:
Under the new (old) plan, students will once again move through the basics — addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and so on — building the skills that are meant to prepare them for algebra by seventh grade. This new approach is being seen as an attempt to emulate countries like Singapore, which ranks at the top internationally in math.
The question is, what are students in Singapore studying in seventh grade math? I’d be willing to bet that, like in Poland, they’ve left algebra far behind by seventh grade.
The answer to catching up with some parts of the world in the education level of our schools lies not only in curriculum changes – rearranging deck chairs in the oft-used cliche. The answer depends, in part, on more educational time: a longer school day and a longer school year.
Having done math in Polish schools, I could not believe how slowly math crawled for my daughters in American public schools. I couldn’t take it by their third grade and took their math education into my own hands. As a result, they both accelerated, finished two years of calculus by sophomore year of high school and then… were mathless. We had to drive them to the university several times a week so that they could take a math class and fulfill the requirement that they study math in at least three out of the four years of high school. It was fine, but only because we had flexible schdules and could work in shuttling them to campus and back. Oh, do I have choice comments about the “nonmath” of elementary and middle school here!
I think part of it might be due to a philosophy/psychology of education that says that kids aren’t capable of such abstract thinking at that age. I would bet that if you asked a sample of math teachers in the States whether their students have the reasoning ability — not talking about experience/education — to do calculus in 9th grade, a significant portion would answer negatively.
K, too, has decided that she’ll have to take math education in her own hands. Plus, it’ll be done in Polish — a double advantage!