WONDERING WHY YOUR CHILD CANNOT EXCEL IN MATH AND SCIENCE?

Wondering Why Your Child Can't Excel In Math and Science?

Written on February 14, 2006
By Mary McGarr

Our President’s [Bush] recent call to improve math and science education rings hollow. He suggests that more students need to meet highstandards in those subject areas.

Of course we would all like for students to meet “high standards” and “high expectations” in math and science.

Therein lies the problem.

Standards that have been set for math and science are not really that high. In fact they have been deliberately dumbed down in an effort to be inclusive of all children’s abilities, obfuscated so that they are truly unclear, and then set out in a public way to give them credibility.

Such maneuvers smack of fascism.

The “standards” that the President alludes to are not benchmarks of any quality at all. In fact, these standards cause students to slip through their learning years without substantive science and math educations.

John Saxon was an educator who recognized the “standards movement” for what it was.

Mr. Saxon was a retired military officer who, when he resigned from the service, went to work as a teacher of algebra. What he saw in the classroom were corrupted texts, phony curricula, and students not learning true algebra.

He set out to correct the situation by creating his own texts founding the Saxon Publishing Company. His signal article, “The Coming Disaster in Science Education in America,” set forth his predictions of the dire consequences portended by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards. He could see that the country was sliding into the precipice of stupid math practices.

Mr. Saxon saw it coming and tried to warn us.

No one paid attention.

Of note is that fact that at the invitation of George Scott, then editor of The Katy News, Mr. Saxon, came to the Katy ISD school district on his own nickel and appeared before the School Board. He offered at his own expense to provide Saxon
math textbooks for one high school and one junior high, if the district would accept them on a trial basis and use them for a year.

Some of the School Board members and the Superintendent had no response and even treated him very rudely at the Board  meeting.

Stanley Thompson, Ken Burton and I were appalled at their behavior, but it was typical. None of them at the time were willing to listen to factual information about what was transpiring right under their noses. Mr. Saxon warned them of the poor math practices, but they chose to ignore him. In retrospect one has to wonder if they were just ignorant or perhaps complicit.

Mr. Saxon passed away before his predictions became widely accepted and realized, but his legacy remains. He was a man who stood up to the education establishment and pointed out their flawed thinking.

If you want to know why your child cannot excel in science or math, please read his article, “The Coming Disaster in Science Education in America” which is the next article.

The Katy ISD adopted many years ago “hands on science and math curricula” for its students. The failure of such curricula should tell parents that change needs to occur.