Weekly Math Updates

October 5, 2005

Hello petition signers,

    A quick update this week. 

Student editorial (article on parasitic fuzzy math practices)

    I am including in this weekly update a student editorial that ran on page two of the September 2005 Penfield (NY) High School newspaper (no author listed).  It's a great example from a student perspective of the shortcomings and failings of the new fuzzy math curriculum which Penfield uses throughout their school system.  The author does have one error in the paper by incorrectly ascribing the root cause to the "NYS curriculum" and not every district in New York is using fuzzy math programs.

Teachers know what's happening

    Multiple teachers around the district are seeing the problems of Investigations math.  In American Fork there is a school heavily supplementing with Saxon math because the teachers know the children are falling behind their peers in charter schools.  When you go to parent teacher conferences, take a flyer and let your teacher know you don't want Investigations math and you want your child taught and brought up to grade level.  Encourage the teachers to supplement your child with other materials.

I need to know

    The next thing is something I actually need from you.  I need a list of teachers and principals that you know of that lost their jobs because they refused to teach Investigations math and wanted to make sure kids were being taught.  If you know of people, I need their name and the school they taught at.  If you can give me a phone number as well that would be very helpful so I don't have to try and track them down.

Thanks everyone.  I hope to be able to report something that's "in the works" in a few days.  Till then, enjoy the attached article.

Sincerely,

Oak Norton

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