Professor Ravitch Writes This

FROM "Left Back
A Century of Battles Over School Reform"
TOUCHSTONE BOOKS 2001
p.440

  "...Signs of dissidence were ignored in
the early 1990's, however, and then came a
counter-revolution.

  "The revolt against the NCTM methods
began in 1995, organized by a group
of irate parents in California, led
by mathematicians and engineers.

  "Calling themselves Mathematically Correct,
they used the Internet to find like-minded
mathematicians, teachers, and parents.  

  "One of these teachers was
Marianne M. Jennings, a professor
at Arizona State University, who
wrote a vivid critique of her teenage
daughter's algebra textbook, an 812-page
full-color tome replete with Dogon art from
Africa, poetry, maps of South America, and
warnings about pollution and endangered
species; Jennings called this approach
'rain-forest algebra.'...


  "...Mathematically Correct...
persuaded the (California) State Board
of Education to adopt a different set
of math standards in 1997.

  "Unlike the NCTM standards, which were
profusely illustrated with examples of how
to teach, the new California standards
described what students would be
expected to learn in each grade,
leaving teachers free to select
their method, whether it involved
NCTM pedagogy or something else."


  RAVITCH ALSO WRITES on pp. 441-442:

  "The underlying approach of the NCTM
standards was solidly grounded in the
familiar principle of progressive
education that learning should be
student-centered, not teacher-led, and
dependent on students' activities rather
than teachers' direction...

  "...The central claim of constructivism
was clearly correct: Students are not
merely blank tapes or photographic film...
All learning is digested by the learner
and understood in relation to what the
learner already knows.  Good teachers use
a variety of methods...

  "...As enthusiasm for constructivism
grew, however, some enthusiasts went to
an extreme, proclaiming that children
should construct essentially all their
knowledge.

  "Wiser heads understood that students
could not invent the world anew, 
rediscover basic principles of math and
science, or "construct knowledge" without
prior knowledge and good instruction.

  "In the usual way of American education,
however, where enthusiasm often outstrips'
evidence and fads tend to have a long
shelf life, constructivism was hailed
as a pedagogical breakthrough and treated
as the holy grail of pedagogy."

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