Battleground Schools Summary

After reading “Mathematics Education” by my very own math education instructor, Susan Gerofsky, I developed a better feeling of how “political” math can be. The article reads like an historical timeline, with the description of the Progressivist Reform, the New Math era and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Math Wars. In the beginning of the Progressivist Reform, there was a desire to teach more of a relational understanding. Besides being able to do math, Progressivist proponents wanted students to learn how to know math. By encouraging active engagement of students in class with activities and both individual and group work, they believed this would be most beneficial for students. I find it interesting that the ideals of the Progressivist Reform are what I am hearing and learning about now, as a teacher candidate.

The New Math era seems to me like an example of children growing up too fast. The abstract ideas and concepts that the New Math curriculum was teaching were too sophisticated. Teachers with regular math backgrounds (in elementary or secondary math) were now teaching topics as hard to comprehend as “set theory, abstract algebra, linear algebra [and] calculus.” The New Math method was ideal for preparing “future elite scientists” but fell short of practicality for everyday people.

The Math Wars was an era where standards were developed for math (and also other curricular subjects). Establishing a set of standards was difficult when all sides were pushing for their input. It seems to me that for all of these eras, in trying to decide on standards, everything became “political” and polar. I suppose that wherever there are decisions to be made, trying to reach a balanced consensus is difficult. As long as both sides remember to keep the students’ best interests in mind, whatever decision is made will be suitable.

Reference
Gerofsky, S. Mathematics Education, Battleground Schools, 2008, Vol. 2, 391-400.

NOTE: I couldn't resist typing this out, but I thought a cool alternative to the title of the book "Battleground Schools" would be "Battlestar Scholastica" but I'm not sure if that infringes on any copyrights or is too close to--well, you know :)