Battlefield Schools - A Summary

The article outlines two very different schools of thought in our education system, progressive and conservative. The conservative view on mathematics education focuses more on instructional and instrumental understanding of the material. This view sees that answers and facts are the way to teach math, treating it as a means to an end. In stark contrast, the progressive view sees that the journey to the answer is much more important and experimentation and understanding is the way that math should be taught. The rest of the article outlines how these two have “battled” for supremacy in how mathematics is taught in the K-12 level.

The progressive movement of the early 20th century saw a realization that experimentation and exploration would lead to more democratic citizens. Educators like Dewey found that, instead of dictating knowledge to the student, it was more effective to let students grapple with issues and problems and let them figure some things out for themselves.

In the 1960’s, a more abstract form of math, called the New Math, permeated the mathematics curriculum of the day. The launching of Sputnik into space meant that America was losing the space race and it was imperative that students in the secondary level ought to be trained to become future rocket scientists. This was seen as very radical and unhealthy for the state of mathematics education as it was conservative idea parading as a progressive one. It also did not account for the fact that not all students wanted to get into Mathematics and Science after finishing secondary school. Lastly, teachers could not teach the material at all because they were educated in a totally different than what the curriculum outlines.

In the latter part of the 20th century, the 80’s and 90’s, a third movement caused a great shift in mathematics education, the Math Wars. Conservative ideas of mathematics education were being branded as right-wing and radical while relational understanding and progressive ideas were seen as more desirable. These ideas are what we would see today happening in our current curriculum.