Having zapped my original blog on this earlier, I will quickly remark that the turnaround from NTSM is a welcome surprise but not a hopeful one. Recall, we have been through a massive plan for a ‘reform’ process before. Then, as now, the scoundrels who acceded to, if not caused the problem have simply changed costume to become the reformers.
‘A Nation at Risk’ and its folow-up ‘Our Schools and Our Future: Are We Still at Risk?’ should have amply demonstrated that this is a failed strategy. Math is not alone in this morass.
The breakdown of American [math] education looks like a classic example of the failure of central planning. The planner/culprits are the U.S. Department of Education, the teachers’ unions who strongarm parents and the public and and extort tribute that enhances teacher power, education policy that places children in the stranglehold of the public temples of education, and of course most of our politicians who play all sides and all sides against each other in the education game.
Notice, there are no parents or children at the real decision-making level. Their presence would be appropriate, but most inconvenient.