stimulant

Michael Battista’s short essay is full of pretty effective rhetoric:

“How would you react if your doctor treated you or your children with methods that were 10 to 15 years out-of-date, ignored current scientific findings about diseases and medical treatments, and contradicted all professional recommendations for practice? It is highly unlikely that you would passively ignore such practice.

Yet that is exactly what happens with traditional mathematics teaching, which is still the norm in our nation’s schools. For most students, school mathematics is an endless sequence of memorizing and forgetting facts and procedures that make little sense to them. Though the same topics are taught and retaught year after year, the students do not learn them. Numerous scientific studies have shown that traditional methods of teaching mathematics not only are ineffective but also seriously stunt the growth of students’ mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills.2 Traditional methods ignore recommendations by professional organizations in mathematics education, and they ignore modern scientific research on how children learn mathematics. Yet traditional teaching continues, taking its toll on the nation and on individuals.”