[too much time]

Educational fads such as the "whole language" approach and (sigh, again....) a lack of emphasis on phonics is probably more to blame for the decline in reading scores. "Reform math" is the educational fad ruining math skills. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (for what they are worth) stated at their meeting last fall that they were wrong back in 1989 for suggesting "constructivist" or "reform math."

[gcruse]

Here's the kind of thinking that got us into the 'reform math' morass.

As a student, I used a slide rule to do some computations; today, I use a calculator. I also spent endless hours doing computations and rarely learning to estimate. Now I rarely do any tedious computations but regularly call upon estimation to decide if a calculator result is reasonable.

• Robert Reys, a former high school mathematics teacher, is a professor of mathematics education at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

[r9etb]

Reform math" is the educational fad ruining math skills. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (for what they are worth) stated at their meeting last fall that they were wrong back in 1989 for suggesting "constructivist" or "reform math."

Agreed. The math curricula I've seen have been really wretched. My kids happen to have good math teachers at present, which is their only saving grace.