The following article may be found in the January 1998 edition of Teaching Children Mathematics published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

Education is a process, not just an event. This axiom underlies the important reform movement as described by the NCTM Standards for School Mathemtics (1989), which presents standards designed to improve mathematics instruction in schools and accellerate our young people toward a demanding future. By adopting such reforms, state and school district trustees have a watershed opportunity to join other progressive leaders determined to reverse negative trends in student achievement.

Through the implementation of the Standards, a downward trend as delineated in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) could change. Indeed, evidence suggests that the students doing well are ones that have been learning mathematics in ways that the NCTM calls for in the Standards. The eighth grade TIMSS data demonstrates that far too many American students are still behind their peers in most other nations in the applied math skills vital to pragmatic, real-world problem solving. The exponential growth of math-based high technology environments underscores the risks inherent in this critical knowledge gap. As American students enter the 21st century work force, their inability to use mathematics (not just arithmetic) to assemble isolated facts into a coherent, usable form diminishes the quality of the American standard of living, our products and our services in a competitive world market.

Many shortsighted responses to declining student performance in the United States includes a clarion call for a return to "the basics" -- rote memorization, drills, and brain-paralyzing tests that more often diminish achievement and trigger a lifetime of math aversion and anxiety in our children. For most people who learned mathematics using the former methods, mathematics quickly became irrelevant to their lives, instead of serving as an invaluable tool to achieve personal goals and objectives. A return to a 1950's, pre-sputnik traditional way of mathematics instruction is not what NCTM calls for, nor what the TIMSS data reflect we should be doing.

Mathematics offers much more than mere tables, symbols, formulas, and abstraction to be mentally stored and parroted back. The ability to think mathematically makes it possible to distill and break down complex problems into understandable elements and create clear, effective, even original solutions. This kind of thinking is essential to continued achievement in science, engineering, and many other fields, including the arts and humanities. When we use a freeway, travel by airplane or train or ride an elevator to the top of a skyscraper, we need to know that the people who constructed these technological marvels knew more than just "the basics". To accomplish this level of creativity, they had at one time access to the powerful ideas inherent in mathematics. The developers of these marvels all learned to become and all became powerful problem solvers.

Children who grow to become these same powerful problem solvers must experience success in the use of mathematical tools and techniques that allow them the opportuntiy to use "the basics" to practice solving real, as well as engaging, problems applying to the life they lead and to the community around them. Many of us notice that children who are incredibly proficient at Nintendo-type games have real trouble in the regular mathemtics classroom. Why is this phenomenon so? It might be possible to interpret many of the TIMSS data and the Standards as saying that the type of mathematics that children do in the classroom is often of a different type from that found in the real world. The computer-game players and problem solvers do not mind repeated practice because they are engaged in the "problem" as it were, and invested in finding a solution for themselves. Parker (1993, 5) has described the different mathemtics cultures that we experience -- school mathematics versus mathemtics as a discipline. The mathematically related activities experienced by many children in school are often of a very different nature from those found outside of school. TIMSS tells us that many American children experience mathematics without seeing the powerful connections and ideas that enable mathematics to become something of value or of beauty and power.

Mathematics reforms do not represent a wholesale movement away from the basics - far from it. Instead, the NCTM Standards ask teachers to have higher expectations for themselves, their students, and their community. To succeed in tomorrow's world, we all must have excellent arithmetic skills plus the ability to reason and think logically plus the skills to use technology to access information successfully plus the ability to communicate these findings. Instead of calling for less from our students and community, the Standards call for much more from both our children and community. Mathematically powerful thinkers and problem solvers are confident and comfortable using mathematics in their daily lives. Because the serious and complex nature of the 21st century challenges facing the next generation remains largely unpredictable, all children deserve support, both emotionally, and materially, in order to become increasingly powerful thinkers and problem solvers. The current rate of technological and societal change virtually ensures the obsolescence of a limiting mathematics education at the beginning of the new century.

As Americans inherit the persistent and challenging problems of the 21st Century that seem to defy present solutions, our birthright must include an education that emphasizes, indeed balances both basic skills and the application of that knowledge to generating effective solutions. Educational policy makers need to create a bold vision and decisiveness to seize this unique opportunity that will enable us prepare all our children for the challenges ahead.
 
 

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics. Reston, VA.: NCTM, 1989.

Parker, Ruth E. Mathematical Power: Lessons from a Classroom. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heineman Educational Books, 1993.

Reprinted with permission from TEACHING CHILDREN MATHEMATICS, Copyright January 1998 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (www.nctm.org). All rights reserved.