District 300 Takes a Look at Older Teaching Methods for Math

Keeshan, Charles, Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

Byline: Charles Keeshan Daily Herald Staff Writer

When recent high school graduates come looking for work at Otto Engineering in Carpentersville, the company gives them a basic math test.

In recent years, most have failed.

"We find that people who can do fifth- and sixth-grade arithmetic are different," said Otto President Jack Roeser. "They're unusual."

That's something Roeser and a local citizens group hope to change with a charter school in Dundee Unit District 300.

"What (schools) have done is removed the ability to do arithmetic because they want to teach mathematics theory," Roeser said. "Mathematical theory is fine for Bertrand Russell, but in the first six grades they've got to learn arithmetic."

The group, Citizens for Accountability in Public Education, says that's what it will do with what …

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Publication information: Article title: District 300 Takes a Look at Older Teaching Methods for Math. Contributors: Keeshan, Charles - Author. Newspaper title: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL). Publication date: October 22, 1998. Page number: 7. © 2009 Paddock Publications. COPYRIGHT 1998 Gale Group.

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