To the Editor;
As technical careers replace blue collar jobs, our nation must improve its math education. In the "math wars" debate, the National Council of Mathematics Teachers (NCTM) and others push "reasoning strategies" over hard knowledge and practice. Mathematicians and parents counter that without specific skills, fuzzy reasoning strategies, plus $2, will get you a cup of coffee. Jay Mathews' column "10 Myths (Maybe) About Learning Math" (May 31) ill serves readers by reporting without question the NCTM talking points, many of which are false.
What an easy column to write. You find a debate, cut and paste one party's position and email it to the other, literally minutes of work already. Then you cut and paste the reply into your column with a few lines of introduction, minutes more. Think of all the hours of tedious listening and thinking avoided!
I challenge the Post to find a reporter willing to spend a week on a math ed story.
Jonathan Goodman
New York City
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