>On May 20, an Illinois newspaper reported that in the city of Oswego, Everyday Math 3 has been adopted, even in the face of much parent criticism of Everyday Math 2. According to the news article, teachers said Everyday Math addressed some of the shortcomings of Everyday Math 2 “by inviting parent involvement and identifying students’ weaknesses.”
One wonders what are the other shortcomings? And why do teachers need parent involvement in order to teach math? Isn’t teaching math the teacher’s job? But more frightening is this teacher’s explanation for why Everyday Math is so great: “Now we can tell you if it’s difficulty (converting) fractions to decimals … if its difficulty knowing what an angle is.”
Does this mean that until Everyday Math 3, teachers could not discern students’ areas of difficulties? This is absurd, and if it’s true, then this is the best evidence yet that this generation of public schools have lost all the good teachers to industry. What’s left for our schools is second-rate at best. Therein lies the true problem. Worst of all, the public is buying the notion that teachers lack judgment without these elaborate, expensive, and convoluted materials.
Read the article: https://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/958899,2_1_AU20_OSSKL_S1.article