There is a very good reason that there are so many charter schools in Alpine School District that use Saxon math. Thousands of parents fled the district starting around 2001 when the district wouldn’t listen to them that Investigations math was a disaster. The district’s mantra was “all the studies show this is the best way to teach math” but when GRAMA requests were filed, they couldn’t produce a single peer-reviewed study, and in fact studies that do exist show constructivist math programs to be utter failures (link 1)(link 2) and those that support them intellectually dishonest. It took 7 years for ASD to drop the program while children were either supplemented, tutored, or unknowingly falling behind their peers. Common Core now gives the states the opportunity to make sure nobody falls behind their peers by dumbing all of them down at the same time.
Constructivism emphasizes group work, discovering math strategies for yourself instead of having tried and true standard algorithms given to you and learning why they work so well, and a lot of writing, all in the name of acquiring a “deeper understanding” of math. (Example of an epic fail in a BYU Calculus class taught by math education professors)
Jordan and Granite math specialists sent their new Secondary Math 1 textbook to the USOE which sent it out to others on June 4, 2012. The book is a recipe for disaster. It starts off like a self-help book of “I Can” statements for each chapter that students should read (and probably repeat over and over for 21 days to convince themselves they can be confident in their math skills).
“I Can” Statements
1.1 I can solve equations and inequalities.
1.2 I can justify steps in solving equations.
1.3 I can solve absolute-value equations and inequalities.
1.4 I can solve compound inequalities. I can use set and interval notation to describe
solutions to compound inequalities.
…
There are no math examples in the book for students to learn from. It’s all up to the teacher to teach so well that when a student goes home the parents don’t need to help them with their homework (thus de-emphasizing the role of parents in the lives of their children and making teachers out to be the smart ones children go to for learning as this article points out)
After many of the “math” problems in the book, you’ll find this set of writing and presentation instructions.
1. In your notebook, record your solutions. Explain your thinking with writing, pictures, equations, etc.
2. PRESENTATION of thinking and work: Be prepared to explain your group’s solution and the process
you used to arrive at the solution. Think about how to present your results so the class can see and
understand your work.
3. CRITIQUE and COMPARISON: Observe the other group presentations. In your notebook, write a
short critique; a) write specifically about what is good, b) write questions and suggestions, c) note
differences and similarities among presentations.
Here’s the very first problem in the book. Nothing like jumping in full force to teach children what they’re in for.
0.1 (task)—Lonely Groundhog
(Adapted from Interactive Mathematics Program)Far, far away, in a land where grassy green hills abound, live small little creatures known as groundhogs. These groundhogs roam the land looking for their shadow to see when winter will end. Once winter is over they live in fancy houses that are decorated with the most beautiful shapes. Since groundhogs aren’t very creative, they live in houses that look just like the house of at least one other groundhog. Groundhogs that live in identical houses always play together. However, one groundhog has a house different from all the rest. Sometimes this groundhog is left all alone. If you can help find the lonely groundhog, perhaps you could introduce it to all the other groundhogs.
The Cards
Your group will receive a set of 40 cards. Without looking at the cards, evenly distribute them amongst the members of your group. Place them face down. Each card in the set will have a picture of a ground hog’s house. One card in the set is a singleton, meaning that there are no other cards with a house exactly like it. Every card other than this singleton has at least one duplicate.
The Task
Your group’s task is to discover the singleton card of the lonely groundhog. When your group thinks they have located the house of the lonely groundhog the task is ended, whether or not you are correct. Therefore, you must be sure that everyone is confident of your answer before you announce that you are done.
The Rules
1. You may not show any of your cards to another member in your group.
2. You may not trade or pass your cards to another member in your group.
3. You may not look at other member’s cards.
4. You may not draw pictures or diagrams of the houses.
5. You may not put cards in a common pile once you have found duplicate houses.
6. You may set your cards face down in front of you once you think you have found a match.Aside from these rules, you may work in any way you choose. You may begin!
Post Game Discussion (possible questions)
What problems did you have in playing this game?
What were your group’s strengths and weaknesses?
How can you help your group work together better and improve your individual participation? How did you know when you were done?
How confident were you in knowing you had solved the problem?
Why were you so confident?0.1 (homework)—Lonely Groundhog
As you can tell from the activity Lonely Groundhog, people play a variety of roles when they work in groups. This assignment is an opportunity for you to reflect upon the way you participate in groups within a math classroom and outside of a math classroom. Be as thoughtful as possible when you answer these questions because they are designed to help you.
Note: This homework will not be shared with other students if you do not want it to be.
1. a. Think of a time when you or someone in your group was left out of the discussion. Describe the situation. Did anyone try to include that person? If not, why not? If yes, then how?
b. What might you have done to help with the situation?
2. a. What has been your experience when someone in your group has made a mistake?
b. How do you think a group should handle mistakes by other group members?
3. a. Think of a time when you wanted to say something, or you did not understand something, but were too afraid to say something. Describe the situation and why you did not say what you wanted to.
b. How do you wish you would have had handled the situation?
4. Do you participate more or less than other group members? Why do you think you do so?
5. Discuss how the amount of homework preparation you do for class affects your participation in group discussions and how your preparation affects the grade your group receives?
Welcome to touchy-feeley math 101. If you feel like this comic expresses, you are not alone (even if your district math specialist tells you that you are the only one that’s ever complained about the math program, which really happened to multiple parents in ASD).
This is secondary math? As in, NINTH grade? And this is MATH? When exactly do they get to the math part of the book?
I find question #5 especially disturbing. Will the Jordan and Granite districts be grading kids in math based on how their GROUP does? I truly hope this is just a question in the book, and not representative of how these districts will handle the grading of its individual students.
Please share some of the other lessons in the book. I’d like to get a taste for how this book develops – perhaps a lesson half-way through, and the last lesson, to see where this goes. It truly does make me feel like that fellow in the comic.
The third paragraph above has a link to the book. There are some decent problems in the book but again, there’s no instruction. It’s not a textbook, it’s a problem set.
Any math that sinks into students in this lesson is secondary to the the real purpose of this lesson on communitarian thinking and consensus building skills. The entire group can arrive at the wrong answer in this process, but as long as they all agree, it’s okay. I skimmed through some of the “lessons” and am appalled at the social engineering techniques used. God help the individual student who does not fit or agree with the ideals set forth by the group. They even go so far as to suggest the classroom have a poster that lists 1. Math Norms 2. Social Norms. Social Norms are not math The section on the Question Cube is interesting. (pg14) Students are not supposed to make a statement. All statements must be rephrased into the form of a question. So, in a nut shell, you basically eliminate all absolutes and objective thinking (2+2=4) and subscribe to relevantism. By their logic, 2+2 could equal 5 if that is the consensus of the group. I was reminded of something I read by CS Lewis from the Abolition of Man and it pretty much sums it up….”If they embark on this course the difference between the old and the new education will be an important one. Where the old initiated, the new merely ‘conditions’. The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly; the new deals with them more as the poultry-keeper deals with young birds- making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing. In a word, the old was a kind of propagation-men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.”
Thanks for posting Stella. I totally agree, and that’s a great quote from Lewis.
I just bought a used Saxon math book for $4. There’s even a free placement test by Saxon, online. I’m working at home after school on math since my kids are still in public schools. Don’t depend on the USOE to make sure your child learns math.
This is crazy! How many Utah math teachers actually critiqued this and are part of the crowd who loves Common Core? This looks more like a psychology book, not a high school math book. I foresee many kids learning to hate math using this method who might have otherwise been great at it. What a disservice. It’s obvious this is not about the kids or about superior education. It’s about social engineering. I advocate private or home schooling without using an organization which advocates Common Core. Unfortunately Common Core is filtering into homeschooling curricula and online schools at an alarming rate this year.
I couldn’t agree with you more Susie. I had my children enrolled in an online school and pulled them out this past fall for the reasons you state. Even though I was teaching my children, I was spending more time altering the curriculum than I was really teaching them. The school was also invading our space more and more with teacher conferences, testing they absolutely had to do, their time on the computer had increased to a ridiculous level. In essence, they took the “home” out of home school. Parents need to wake up and take notice of what their children are being indoctrinated with. It isn’t about getting an education anymore. This movement is about creating a generation that doesn’t know how to think so they will simply follow what they are told.