Posted on 08/21/2016 8:59:32 AM PDT by Lorianne
In 1990, the Navajo students of Window Rock High School in Fort Defiance, Arizona, asked the author of their calculus book, John Saxon, to be their graduation speaker. The class sponsor had suggested the governor as their speaker, but the students wanted Saxon.
A story in The Arizona Republic explained, “At this high school, as at thousands of other schools around the country, Saxon’s name is spoken with reverence by pupils who credit him with changing completely their views about math.”
Arnell Yazzie, president of the senior class, said he and others taking calculus had lobbied for Saxon’s selection. “He has done so much for us,” Yazzie said. That year, for the first time, 13 high school students had taken the Advanced Placement exam for calculus. A good score on that exam can earn students college credit. They credited their Saxon math books for helping set up that opportunity.
That same year, students at Provo High School in Utah had organized a petition drive demanding Saxon’s “Advanced Mathematics” textbook be retained, rather than replaced, as the administration planned. They succeeded with not only keeping the book but adding the Saxon “Calculus” textbook to the high school series. When Saxon visited the school, the students gave him a welcome that surprised him. His teachers said, “They feel like they know him after using his books.”
In 1992, an Atlanta, Georgia, newspaper wrote about a conflict around “Saxon Math” being put on the state’s approved adoption list. They said a “heretical yearning for ‘learning by heart’ was creeping across the land…relying on old-fashioned memorization and repetition…Proponents don’t see this as a retreat into the past, but a post-modern appropriating of traditions for the effectiveness in the present.”
A Hero to Kids, a Villain to Educrats
Today, the Escondido Charter High School in California has a “John Saxon Day” to honor him. They make creative annual videos that praise “Saxon Math” and post them on YouTube. The BASIS charter schools group, founded in Tucson, Arizona in 1998 consistently show some of the best scores in the country—and world—on standardized tests. They have used “Saxon Math” since their inception.
SNIP
Good article but terrible headline writing as usual. I thought that someone went to war based upon faulty mathematics when I started to read...lol.
Thanks for sharing.. my kids hate math so Saxon is quite inspirational.
Bookmarking this for later, because calc kicked my ass.
Sylvanus P Thompson, FRS encountered similar “establishment” ridicule when he published his “the Calculus Made Easy” in 1910. The book remains popular - and is still in print over a century later. (Another engineer, ha! “You don’t have to explain how to construct a watch in order to read the time “— Thompson
One of Saxon’s friends was Jaime Escalante, the math instructor in a Los Angles barrio high school, whose unbelievable success with Hispanic students was portrayed in the movie “Stand and Deliver.” It helped establish his legacy. Saxon supporters have often wished a movie could be made about him. Perhaps then people could see where his heart was, but why he had to use a clenched fist to help America’s children in math education. Then his legacy might also be memorialized.
While it appears that he did not use Mr/Col Saxon's book, Mr Escalante's history showed that his success was attacked by the 'educrats' in his school system. Unionized Academia is essentially socialist by nature, desiring to behead all who stick over others while protecting those who never grow!
That’s the way I learned electronics in the Air Force. “Blocks” of instruction, each block a different topic. And each block broken down into sub-units. Each sub-unit was taught until mastered. Then,the block was taught as a whole.
Scored 100% in the course.
Saxon saved my education. Having been subjected to new math at a public high school, I despaired of ever understanding higher math. The modernist deconstructed pedagogy almost completely overcame even my rigid Catholic primary education.
I was introduced to Saxon in a college algebra course and his incremental approach combined with practical application was a profound departure from the modern mess. While I still suffer from an acute mathematics phobia, his materials provided a basis to finish calculus. Saxon is one of my heroes; he took on the educational establishment and won.
My teacher in Advance Math was great but the book was the worst math text ever.
congrats to Mr. Saxon and the brave math teachers who keep trying to do a good job.
TWB
bttt
Fr’s very own UltraSonic007 was home schooled with Saxon math. He got a full ride through his masters in mathematics, magna cum laude.
Saxon is the real deal.
Teachers’ unions don’t like Saxon. Less remediation needed if Saxon text books are used.
“Teachers’ unions don’t like Saxon”
Teacher’s unions like anything that needs more teachers. When my father and me worked in the Boston school system, we watched as the Harvard educated higher ups changed everything from the curriculum to the layout of the school buildings. Instead of classrooms they created open pods; instead of buildings designed for student control(long hallways) they spent millions on “new wave” buildings(highrise with escalators). Instead of neighborhood schools they bussed students across the city,yellow busses crisscrossing each other everyday.
In a matter of 5 years they destroyed the city’s school system. More money was being spent on security and phony remediation programs(more teachers) than teaching students.
Liberals don’t measure for success, if they did they would be out of a job!
And now for the rest of the story. Saxon died, and the estate tax stole his company, i.e. it had to be sold to Harcourt/Achieve to pay the tax (more money for the Gibmedats, bureaucrats, and crony capitalists).
Harcourt is a member in good standing of the Ed Establishment, which hated Saxon’s approach because it didn’t conform to the ridiculous theories generated by the not-very-smart people who call themselves ed professors. So, Harcourt is ruining the series. The old books can still be found, but I wouldn’t buy the new ones.
Very well said. Yours is an example of what has been happening to education all across our nation.
When certain people want to disguise and obscure a very simple concept like "the study and practice of how best to teach" they use terms like pedagogy.to impress and confuse. I was well into my forties, with a Bachelors and Masters degree, when I first heard a terminally liberal associate use the term. Up to that time "how best to teach" was a very clear and unambiguous concept.
“which hated Saxon’s approach”
They hated it because it worked. If something works, you don’t need to change it, especially a subject like math, which is static. It means you can use the textbook for as many years as it remains physically intact.
Harcourt needs “inovation” and “change” so they can sell new books.
Just reading the names makes me miss some friends and his books sound great.
Instead of signing up for a class, I'm going to buy the Saxon Advanced Math Home Study Kit and use it to relearn concepts and how to think in math again.
After a few birthdays and a few too many bumps to the head, I like reinstalling the old programming and making sure whatever's left in memory isn't too scrambled from neglect and damage.
Some of my posts here make me wonder about me sometimes...yikes.
New math took over.
If the velocity of Jonnie’s car is 2 feet per second per second, and assuming a top speed of 50 mph how racist is Jonnie?
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