Parents Debate Math Reforms

Re “Parents Skilled at Math Protest New Curriculum,” Dec. 19:

Apparently, technologically sophisticated parents who criticize the new “fuzzy” math curriculum are being regarded as a marginal, “elitist” minority. I wonder how the defenders of the “fuzzy” curriculum would like to live to see the world their policies will foster. They can drive a car built by an engineer who hasn’t learned exactly how to calculate effective brake design, though she or he can guess about what it should be. When they crash, they can have emergency brain surgery by a surgeon who was glad she or he didn’t need to learn all those boring details in medical school, because just the general idea of neurosurgery is so cool (and she or he has great “people skills”). Then, although they can never walk or talk again, I hope they will at least survive for many years, so they have time to contemplate a simple moral: Sometimes it actually does make a difference to know the right answer.

Or am I being unfair-- is the real point of “fuzzy math” just that only the children of rich parents should be allowed to get a real education?

ELLEN ROTHENBERG

Division of Biology

Caltech

The trouble with any polarized debate is that both sides are, at best, half right. If one-third of all jobs of the future will be knowledge and problem-solving based, all children must have problem-solving and communication skills. However, knowing the strategy of how a tennis game is played will never make a winning tennis player without the basic skills and drill. On the other hand, all of the drill in the world on basic skills will not make a champion without learning winning moves. All children need a better education!

The children need both drill and cooperative problem-solving skills. The question is, how does that fit into the crowded school day? The answer should be easy, but no one seems to want to hear it. The students are most receptive to new ideas and learning during the school day. The very time that qualified teachers are available. Problem-solving and cooperative skills should be taught then. Like athletes, students need the time-consuming drills on skills. It should be done as homework, when they are less receptive to new work. Only then will all students be ready for “real” algebra, and the jobs of the future.

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

LARRY SEVERSON

Fountain Valley