“National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)”
For those who may not know, this is the bunch who effectively destroyed math education in the US with their “Everyday Math” series, which even math PhD’s could not figure out what the hell they were doing, other than knowing it wasn’t math. For starters, they had kids using calculators in Kindergarten and being told there really is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers.
Needless to say, it was universally adopted in the US, and just as needless to say, most ‘conservative’ parents didn’t lift a finger to protect their kids from it.
My experience as a parent goes waaaaaaaaay back to the 70s.
When we tried to answer our bright son’s math questions, we received a nasty note from the teacher specifically telling us not to introduce him to advanced concepts and processes because it made him stand out from the other kids.
Some kids even then were bullied by teachers and some students for being brighter or more knowledgeable. The brighter kids would also show off, making things worse.
It isn’t always the fault of parents. Not everyone can homeschool, especially the brighter kids. Not everyone can afford private school, when there are no more financial sacrifices to make. It has to be done at higher levels and the problem is that even a school board needs a majority and then there needs to be superintendents on their side. Both are political positions ultimately stymied by the universities and the very corrupt textbook industry.
Even when a non-partisan local establishment manages to effect change, that change is predicated and mediated at much higher, more powerful levels. Imagine a well-intentioned professor of teacher education trying to go against the Bill Ayers types at the university level, especially today.
Back then, I identified as liberal. I gained appointment to a state board in my field. I ran into a political wall over the allocation of grant monies. I stuck it out for 3 years as the only member working in the field, but there were 11 other members, all politically connected with interlocking agendas. It was the Aegean Stables.
However, I now see citizens taking action and I hope it continues and accelerates. We cannot allow our lives to be stolen any further. The globalists and their shills play hard ball.
“National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)”
For those who may not know, this is the bunch who effectively destroyed math education in the US with their “Everyday Math”
Of course rote memorization was forbidden—and it still is in common core math. I understand, or at least I think I do, what NCTM were about. Most math teachers are rather good at math, like it, always have liked it and learned their much of what they know though self-discovery. They ignore the fact that most humans don’t have a knack or talent for math, don’t particularly enjoy it and see math as a tool to use to get things done.
The result of this is that most students are subjected to teaching methodology that is unsuited for likely 95% of the population and fails to teach them what they need to know to actually use math productively.
When I was in the third and fourth grades, most of math class was devoted to memorization of the times tables. This prepared me to be able to deal with fractions in the 5th grade. Today at least half of the 8th graders cannot do 8 x 4 without resorting to a calculator or if that is not allowed either adding on paper or trying to use their fingers...