Evaluating 'Everyday Math'
I'd like to use this occasion to thank Linda Seebach for alerting the readers of her column to Kiselev's Geometry and Ron Aharoni's Arithmetic for Parents (published by Sumizdat.org) and for passing on my opinion about math curricula.
One of her readers, a 3rd grade teacher, asked me by email about Everyday Mathematics, a program that used to be popular in California and is still in broad use elsewhere. I'd like to summarize here my observations made several years ago while studying some "EM" materials for grades K, 3 and 5.
"EM" is quite ambitious: it touches upon many math topics far beyond the grade level. One problem is that it does so falsely. E.g.: 3rd grade teachers are served with regular polyhedra defined incorrectly, and Venn diagrams used mistakenly. Deep topics are usually handled superficially, i.e. with the focus on notation at the expense of content -- something a mathematician would never do!
Another problem is the size: Elementary school teachers, whose time is scheduled by the minute, and whose attention is divided between several subjects and the task of watching the kids, are to follow manuals of inhumane complexity and volume.
By this measure, Aharoni's Arithmetic seems 40 times more efficient!
The students of "EM," on the contrary, are not entitled to have textbooks. They are to take part in numerous activities, often decoupled from the math at hand. In the workbooks, the order of topics is intentionally chaotic, as if to instill the common misconception that math is a zoo of unrelated "strategies," facts and algorithms.
This letter is not a place for a thorough review, but in essence my message is the same as with Saxon Math: I can't think of a reason to use "EM," when Singapore Math is available.
Alexander Givental is the founder of Sumizdat.org
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Are you actually trying to tell us something..or just babbling along?
Posted by gary on March 31, 2007 06:52 AMAre you actually trying to tell us something..or just babbling along?
Posted by gary on March 31, 2007 06:53 AMgary, you hve trouble concentrating or something?
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