Mathematics Reform for the `Real World'

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The changes in the way that mathematics is taught in school described in the Learning page article "Math Lessons for the Real World," Nov. 9, are exactly the wrong type of educational reform in light of ongoing efforts to make the United States more technologically competitive with the rest of the world.

Mathematics is a foundation for every engineering, scientific, and technical field of study.

The 1989 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards endorsed by Thomas Romberg, director of the National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education, represent a drastic watering down of the secondary school mathematics curricula. They dismiss …