Overview

Since the end of World War II, methods for teaching mathematics in the United States have changed in style repeatedly, often with controversial results. The first major change, coined New Math, was launched into American schools in the early 1960s. New Math stressed conceptual understanding of the principles of mathematics and de-emphasized technical computing skills. With New Math, out went the rote drill and practice of math facts and formulas. Instead, along with a whole new vocabulary of terms related to mathematical operations, students were taught abstract concepts involving operations on sets of numbers grouped by their characteristics and properties. The intended focus of New Math was to teach children basic mathematical truths that they would then be able to apply to specific problems in a rapidly specializing scientific and technical world. New Math, however...