And, in fact, educators did know how to teach math -- back before WWII. But educators got bored teaching the same way year after year, and they felt a need to mix it up and blaze new trails. It has not worked out well for the kids.
Reading is the same way. Phonics will get 80-90% of the kids reading as well as anyone could wish. But educators decided that Phonics was bad. So they went to "Whole Language" and other awful stuff. Now, perhaps 40% of the kids read well. Great Success!!
One room school houses (where older kids helped to teach the younger kids (and reinforced their knowledge)) worked out swell as long as the kids continued on with their edumacation.
Reading is the same way. Phonics will get 80-90% of the kids reading as well as anyone could wish. But educators decided that Phonics was bad. So they went to "Whole Language" and other awful stuff. Now, perhaps 40% of the kids read well. Great Success!!
I blame PhD researchers and textbook manufacturers. In the sciences new things are being discovered and the frontiers of knowledge are constantly pushed forwards. Various other departments in colleges want the same respect and chances for grant funding. Now you don't get either from publishing papers which say "Yes, what we knew before is still accurate." So unless you have some vast new store of knowledge (like newly discovered historic records or even hooking people up to MRIs to see learning in process), you have to burn all previous knowledge and go in a new direction pretending that your method is better.
Similarly, textbook writers and publishers don't get paid big money to take a previous version and print highlights in blue instead of red or to change references to Johnny having three video cassettes to three DVDs. You have to take what is old and worked and throw it out.
This is not a case of standing on the shoulders of giants. Instead you are at most standing on the ankles of giants.
ClearCase - You nailed it. Math doesn’t change. It is a tool, must be memorized so kids can DO it. But no - the kids whined that it wasn’t relevant. The textbook people sell expensive textbooks that keep changing. The math professors write new textbooks to get money.
When we homeschooled, we used basic math (paperback) workbooks. It’s all there. Memorize, learn to calculate precisely, you are done. Read great books, sound out the words you do not know - bingo, you are educated.
Teachers’ unions?
Those are the kids who were afterschooled by their parents. These are the kids whose parents bought Hooked on Phonics, Reader Rabbit, and Headsprout.
Yep! The 40% who are afterschooled.
But.....After all the work done by the parents and child** IN THE HOME*** guess who takes the credit?
Drum roll!.....THE SCHOOL! Yes!
Who then capitalizes in the school's high test scores? Answer: Real Estate Agents!
( Yes, I am shouting.)
My 4-year-old grandson is reading, partly due to hooked on phonics. He knew the alphabet by age 2, mainly learned on his own. My daughter lets him watch a lot of educational TV when she has an assignment due so he picked it up by himself. He’s into numbers now....she gave him a Kit Kat candy bar last week and when he opened it, he exclaimed, “Oh, an eleven!” He’s so funny.