Saxon developed his following among homeschoolers for two reasons. First, he would sell his curriculum to homeschoolers at a time when even many Christian curriculum publishers would not. Second, the books are prodigies of sound pedagogy.
I am writing this going through the Saxon series for the third time, and I am always impressed by how clear the explanations are and how well the books reinforce previously learned material.
Saxon is hated for the same reasons phonics is hated by the education establishment. The message of Saxon to the “math educators” of simian intellect is “You have nothing to contribute. We know how to teach math effectively, and if you want to make a name for yourself as an innovator, you will need to do it in some other field. But you probably aren’t smart enough to do that.”
For the textbook publishers, the message is “There is no need for constantly changing new editions of math books. Your “innovations”, typically produced by imbecile math educators, have no point other than helping your top line revenue. They are unneeded, and you need to find a different business model - one that doesn’t involve creating revenue by pushing defective curriculum and harming children.”
Saxon was acquired by Harcourt-Achieve in a sale that was forced by the Death Tax. Most of us buy the pre-Harcourt editions used because we don’t trust Harcourt.
For homeschoolers, Art Robinson’s suggestions on how to begin Saxon are sound. Teach your child math facts through the 12s until they are absolutely automatic. Then start with Saxon 5/4 (books below 5/4 are a sop to the stupid scope and sequence of government schools). You will find that a normal child with that preparation will do most of 5/4 in his head and finish the book easily in about 8 or 9 weeks. I’ve done this three times; it works. My 9 year-old is about 30 lessons away from starting Saxon Algebra I.
If you want to understand the problem in more depth, go to YouTube and watch Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth and the two related videos (not the “responses”).
Excellent summary. I once checked what I was teaching my kids out of his books versus what the State of Texas required for their math exams. He covered it all - I was stunned.
The books are astounding. Using those books is like watching the old Fox News - all of a sudden all of the garbage is out of the way, and you’re seeing the real thing.
I am writing this going through the Saxon series for the third time,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gee! I thought I was the only one who did this for **fun**!
We should form a secret club with special decoder rings. :-)
Thanks for this excellent commentary.
Here’s something else that occurred to me while reading the biography. Each of the dozen Reform Math books (e.g. Everyday Math) has 10-20 authors. So that’s about 200 professors with their snouts in the trough. That buys a lot of compliance, and a lot of disdain for Saxon, even though he’s the one doing a good job.