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Our nation is in need of mathematically skilled citizens. On April 18, 2006, President Bush created the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. The panel will advise the President and Secretary Spellings on the best use of scientifically based research on the teaching and learning of mathematics. The hope, to raise the level and production of home grown mathematically skilled citizens. Thursday, September 6th, 2007, the panel is holding its 8th meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. Ms. Elizabeth Gnall of Ridgewood New Jersey has traveled to St Louis to give public comment. We would like to sincerely thank New Jersey State Assemblyman David Russo for his office’s help and assistance in getting us our public comment timeslot at the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. The content of the speech is appended below. It was applauded after it was given.
Liz Gnall, Sarah-Kate Maskin, Joan O’Keefe
https://www.vormath.info/
National Math Advisory Panel Website and Information
https://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/index.html
“What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children”. So stated John Dewey in The School and Society.
I live in the affluent public school district of Ridgewood New Jersey. But my district has a dirty little secret. Ridgewood Public School district is segregated – on one side of town, elementary school-aged children are taught math following a logical sequencing of topics, honoring the scholarly body of mathematics.
In another part of town the math is not taught but instead it is left for the children to discover and to construct. The math where for grades beyond Kindergarten the use of scissors, glue, paperclips, and any other object now defined as a manipulative, are deemed acceptable and encouraged. Sadly, this is the side of town where my children attend school.
One of my children was struggling to learn within that environment. As any parent would do, I raised my concerns to the school system but those concerns were met with “Our math is for ALL the children”. Outside of the school, I found a teacher and using a traditional math program, presented to my child math concepts sequentially, logically. My child practiced, practiced, practiced or as a fellow math mom called it, “drill & skill”. Lo’ and behold, my child learned math, understood math.
My other elementary school age child has a knack for math, readily grasps the concepts. Yet in the same school, I found he was bored. Once again, I raised my concerns, but because I live on that side of Ridgewood, the reform math side, the TERC math side, my concerns were once again met with, “Our math is for ALL the children”.
The same traditional teacher, using the same traditional program that helped my struggling child to no longer struggle, embraced my mathematically inclined child and advanced his skills, fed his thirst to learn and understand more, celebrated his intellect rather than leaving it behind.
From speaking to teachers, seemingly handcuffed by curriculum policy and fuzzy standards, to communicating with superintendents blinded by their ideology so as to NOT hear valid parental concerns, to emailing and confronting elected Board of Education officials with a preponderance of evidence that their reform math policy is not educating ALL of the children, to being interviewed by reporters who still erroneously cover the math wars as a battle of rote memorization verses critical thinking, to writing editorials to inform parents unaware because grades seem fine but hide what little is really being taught and learned, to writing government officials as mathematically capable citizens are needed to lead our nation in the 21st century, to creating a website and authoring a petition, and to having flown to St Louis to speak before this panel, all to advocate for a math education for my children, for their voices to be heard, for the same education that is available on another side of my town.
Across this nation, parents just like me, will ultimately triumph in the math wars because it is OUR children, not the children of the state.
And for OUR children, their education is more important and held more dearly than any social, political, economic or ideological driven agenda. In Ridgewood New Jersey reform math programs are on the agenda.
Parents in Ridgewood have been given no information to misinformation to biased information, and it has all been delivered as if it was truly “scientifically research based” information. The findings of your panel can hold great significance but only if what you present is crystal clear information.
My husband and I are the best and wisest parents for our children. Give us a choice in math education and we would choose a math education that is rigorous, focuses on content, is not driven by constructivist pedagogy, emphasizes the learning of mathematical facts, principles, and algorithms, uses the proper language and symbolic notation of math, and defines mathematical reasoning as the interconnections within mathematics. It is the kind of math that is being taught in other parts of this nation, the world, and in other parts of my town of Ridgewood New Jersey. It is the math I believe that will provide a solid foundation for my children so if they desire, if they dream, to become a scientist, an architect, or like their dad, a Wall Street finance executive, or like their mom, an engineer, they can.
Thomas Jefferson would have wept at the thought of a mathematically illiterate United States of America.
But I stand before you today, in recognition that I will provide to the future of this great nation three mathematically capable citizens that I have educated. And their success will be in spite of reform math.
Thank you.
>God Bless Liz Gnall!!!
I hope the Presidents Panel was listening.
>Dear Math Moms,
You are an a valued asset to Ridgewood. Keep up the outstanding work.
An Appreciative Parent
>Thank you Ms. Gnall!! We are indebted to you for all of your hard work and thoughtful effort. On behalf of my school age children… BRAVO!!
Let’s hope our district can do what is in the majority’s best interest. Get rid of reform math or provide a choice to parents.
>Kudos to Russo also, it’s nice that one of our elected officials stepped up to help them out.
>Thank you for eloquently expressing these critical concerns to those that would act on them. Not only should Ridgewood parents applaud you but a standing ovation goes with it!
>Thank you Liz. This reform math is undoing our nation and to think that our very own Regina Botsford is a part of that movement. That Ridgewood would buy into reform math is beyond my comprehension. I am thankful that my children have graduated out of RHS and that they escaped reform math.
>Liz, you are amazing. Your efforts will long be remembered.
I look forward to the day when Botsford resigns! Ideology in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary opinion does not equal education. It equals the death of a mind.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Botsford should stop harming our children in such a critical manner.
>Thank you Liz! Its a wonderful speech – I hope you e-mail it to Dr. Brennen and the BOE.
Now that school has started, I hope more people will sign the petition – if you haven’t already please do so! You can sign a paper copy if you don’t want to sign the electronic copy.
A conerned and appreciate Travell parent
>Thank you Liz. You are so appreciated.
It takes a strong individual to stand up for what she believes, and you are giving the rest of us courage to speak up too.
The math issue won’t go away until reform math is gone.
>Liz, I sure wish you could be in charge of our math curriculum for the district. Your expertise would put us back on top instead of the downward spiral that we are now experiencing.
>Thank you Liz.
To the “math moms,” keep up the good work.
>Quite a formidable lady who learned math the “traditional” way. An engineering degree is no small achievement for anyone, male or female. Let’s quit kidding ourselves. Let’s start teaching the kids again. The Kool Aid experiment is a big flop. Go, Mrs. G!
>Ms. Gnall spoke brilliantly. What has happened in Ridgewood can be partially explained by site based management. Several years ago , it was a big issue in Ridgewood. While no one wants cookie cutter schools,common sense dictates that core curriculum and most certainly the basics be taught to all our students in a similar manner. Our six elementary schools empty into 2 middle schools which filter into one highschool. “Best Practices” should be determined and taught in all our schools. How much more homogeneous can you get than Ridgewood? The curriculum should not be so diverse that outcomes are not similar. Lastly, one can learn math and not totally understand it but if you understand it and can’t do it { get the right answers], it doesn’t really matter!
>The above statement is so true. The Pythagorean theorem, for example, has many practical uses in everyday life. I’ve known and used the Pythagorean theorem for 35 years.
But I only learned this year a little more theory about why it works.
Interesting that I was able to use it without fully understanding it.
I am also able to use my car without understanding how it works (thankfully).
>I think we should each bring a copy of Liz’s speech and a jug of kool aid to the next board of ed meeting. members can refresh themselves while reading something substantial about math for a change.
>One of the things I liked about her speech is the quote about “I am the best and wisest parent”.
Ridgewood Schools have become socialist, they have made our kids “children of the state”.
Parental input is not asked for and ignored.
>The boe members definitely like parental input when it coincides with their thinking. If you tell the board what they want to hear they will let you go on and on and on at the microphone.
>We defeated “reform math” in our area by banding together and refusing to have our children do the homework. We didn’t want our kids wasting any time on the TERC material.
But it seems Ridgewood parents are sheep – following the school sheppards. Sadly Ridgewood, those TERC proponents are leading your children astray.
>Thank you Mrs. Gnall for all your hard work. Although I do not have children, I can clearly identify with your concerns and your efforts. Thank you for devoting your time, effort and intellect to this worthy cause.
Where do I find the electronic petition?
What can be done at BOE election time?
>to 7:19… go to http://www.vormath.info and the link for the electronic petition is in the top, right hand corner.
From, Another concerned parent