Battleground Schools

The first idea that made me stop was realizing how polarized the views on mathematics education have been between progressivists and conservatives. I had assumed that, although people might disagree about how math should be taught, there would be more generalized public view about balancing understanding with procedural fluency, and the difficulty with doing so. Instead, the reading showed how strongly these ideas could be separated, with progressivists emphasizing understanding and inquiry while conservatives placed more emphasis on fluency and procedures.

I also didn’t realize how early the progressive movement in mathematics education began. I had associated inquiry and student-centred learning with more recent years, so learning about John Dewey’s influence during the 1910-1940 period made me rethink how long these ideas have been around. I also hadn’t really considered how much large political events could influenced what students were taught in mathematics. Reading Susan’s part, I realized how much the article was framing math schooling as a key to global competitiveness; the most important part about math in school was to create more scientists to win the global race.

Finally, I found the discussion of American students’ international mathematics rankings interesting. Seeing that U.S. eighth-grade students ranked 28th in the world made me wonder how Canada compared at the time. Overall, I realized that debates about how mathematics should be taught are much older and more complicated than I had thought.