The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards adopted in 1989 proclaim that the first mission of math instruction is to make the discipline emotionally appealing to children: "Affective dimensions of learning," the NCTM declares in its math standards statement, "play a significant role in and must influence curriculum and instruction." Thus, the NCTM directs that teachers should concentrate less on "rote memorization of rules" and "tedious pencil and paper computations," and more on "discussion of mathematics, writing about mathematics," and "exploration of chance." What about teaching children the rudiments of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division? The NCTM standards contend that calculators render "computational proficiency" outmoded, even that "further efforts toward mastering computational skills are counterproductive." The aim of math instruction, they claim, is to get children to "think mathematically."
Dana Mack, The Assault on Parenthood: How Our Culture Undermines the Family, p.117
[No wonder that for the past couple decades our young people have such poor math skills!]
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