Mathematics Education in America: A Troubled System in Need of Change

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Mathematics Education in America: A Troubled System in Need of Change On a trip to Fidler concrete in Goshen, Indiana, a man ordered forty feet of rebar for home use. When he went to pick up the rebar, the adult employee in charge asked the man what size pieces he would like. The man asked for six-foot sections. The employee furrowed his brow and said, “Now, if it were five foot sections, that would be ten of them for forty feet, right?” The man replied, “No, ten of the five footers would be fifty feet.” The employee pondered that and said, “So in the six-footers…Ah, I’ll just give you twelve. That should be enough.” This is a true story. In this one experience, the employee showed a lack of ability to multiply, add, or logically reason that with bigger sections, the number of pieces needed to make forty feet would decrease. This is disturbing. Just as one would expect an adult to know how to read, to know who the President is, and to be able to find his home state on a map, one would expect an adult to be able to multiply six times seven. The Fidler employee was obviously not taught sound mathematical reasoning in school. Unfortunately, as much as the current educational system tries to neglect the value of math, its importance is inescapable, especially in today’s modern society. The time has come to reintroduce the public to mathematics, and the way to do it is to establish more and better math classes in American schools. The most disappointing aspect of mathematics education in the United States is the overwhelming apathy toward the subject. It is not that America hates math, but rather that America does not even care enough to form a strong opinion. Taking this apat... ... middle of paper ... ...stimony. 9 Sept. 2000. MAS Fulltext Ultra. 7 Mar. 2001. Jones, Rebecca. “Solving Problems in Math and Science Education.” The American School Board Journal. 185.7 (1998): 16-20. “A Nation at Risk.” 1983. United States Department of Education. 18 Mar 2001. . Restivo, Sal, Jean Paul Van Bendegen, and Roland Fischer. Math Works: Philosophical and Social Studies of Mathematics and Mathematics Education. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1993. Smith, Joe K. “Mathematics.” Academic American Encyclopedia. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, 1996: 221. Stuart, Vanessa B. “Math Curse or Math Anxiety?” Teaching Children Mathematics 6.5 (2000): 330-5. Willoughby, Stephen S. “Mathematics, Education in.” Academic American Encyclopedia. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier, 1996: 222-3.

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