As Math Scores Lag, a New Push for the Basics

Tamar Lewin, reporting on the state of math education in the U.S.:

Shalimar Backman, who put pressure on officials here by starting a parents group called Where’s the Math?, remembers the moment she became concerned.

“When my oldest child, an A-plus stellar student, was in sixth grade, I realized he had no idea, no idea at all, how to do long division,” Ms. Backman said, “so I went to school and talked to the teacher, who said, ‘We don’t teach long division; it stifles their creativity.’”

Jeebus.

★ Tuesday, 14 November 2006