From the NYT in today’s News & Observer, Tamar Lewin reports the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has reversed its 1989 report’s recommendations about math instruction.
The 1989 report nudged the nation away from rote learning and toward a constructivist approach playing down memorization in favor of having children find their own approaches.
Right, there was nothing as helpful as stepping down off the shoulders of giants and rediscovering objective facts like the multiplication tables. Great idea! And we’ve got 18 years of eroding test scores to prove it.
I’m glad they’re finally recognizing the error. Now if they’ll just tell third graders to put away the calculators and start pushing pencils again.
