image: misskprimary, Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
The article in question (penned by Elizabeth Green) was the cover story of the July 27th edition of the New York Times Magazine bearing the title “Q: Why does everyone hate the new math?” (subtitle: “A: because no one understands it, not even the teachers.”)
Curiously, the online version of the article bore a different headline: “Why do Americans stink at math?“. While it would be interesting to get the scoop on the different titles and how it reflects upon differences in editorial mentality and/or target audience, that’s a whole different blog. Here I want to focus on “Why do the New York Times stink at article titles?” (at least in this case). I’m still mulling over the alternative title for my print version. Let me know if you have any ideas.
Look, I get it, titles need to be provocative. And I have no issue with going negative (see my post “What’s the problem with Study Island?”). But I find the print title particularly troublesome because in our increasingly “topline the tweet and show me pretty pictures” culture, it’s only going to fan the reactionary flames about how the new math is stupid and we should go back to the old ways.
Now the actual article is a great read (I’d be curious to hear what title Elizabeth Green initially submitted), but here’s my quick summary. Americans are not so hot at math, whether reflected in 4th and 8th test scores or adult studies. Our traditional approach to teaching math is all about technique, rather than discovery and conceptual understanding. Every fifty years or so we try to change how we teach math and then fail because we don’t sufficiently train teachers (or parents) on the new ways. And it may be happening right now again with the new Common Core math.
Japan does things differently. Well, actually they used to do things pretty much like we did. But starting in the late ’70s, they began implementing American developed methods that shifted the instructional approach to be more learner centered and discovery oriented. Ever since, they have increasingly kicked out butts in math testing (now apparently by more than two grades). While American kids are spending basically all of their classroom time practicing, Japanese kids are spending half of it thinking and inventing. And discovering they actually like math. Oh yeah, and the secret Japanese educational technology for supporting this new approach is something called a chalkboard.
No, it’s not that simple. It never is. There’s good discussion about why it may have been easier to implement wide-scale change in Japan. But the bottom line is the new math does make sense. And it does achieve results where implemented properly (including in small scale US experiments). We just have to figure out how to make it work.
As for me, I’m hopping in my time traveling DeLorean and heading to New York City circa July 2014. Just in time to grab a copy of the the newly published New York Times Magazine. I hear it’s got an awesome cover story: “Why the Japanese are kicking our butts in math. Using American invented methods.”
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