Teaching Math

Another Sunday and yet another irrelevant, simplistic and counterproductive diatribe from the pen of David [Klein], Cal State Northridge math guru ("Governing Schools," Letters to the Valley Edition, Feb. 28). He continues to demonstrate a woeful lack of sophistication in understanding the problems faced by contemporary students struggling to succeed in mathematics. Cutesy little comments such as "touchy, feely" and "scrambled-eggs . . . mathematics" are not amusing or accurate. They certainly do not enlighten the serious professional discussions that need to take place as we move into the 21st century, where students might very well need to know how to use a calculator.

In an address this month to a joint meeting of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Assn. of America, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley called for a cease-fire in the "math war" that has raged in California and school districts across the country. The war pits "reformers"--who worry that American students can crunch numbers but can't use them thoughtfully--against back-to-basics advocates, who say that some things must be practiced over and over until they are memorized, not as a substitute for thinking but as an aid to it. The rhetoric got especially heated in December, when the State Board of Education in California adopted academic standards that emphasized the traditional approach, outraging the reformers.

Re "Why Can't Johnny Do Math?" editorial, Jan. 13: I am a former high school math teacher and a current substitute math (and other subjects) teacher. How about looking at the kids and the kids' parents and the parents' parents before them? There is little encouragement from home, and enough students in each class that I teach who disrupt the class constantly. This is from first grade to 12th grade. Many of the disrupters have been passed along year after year with failing grades.

This fall, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study--the largest comparison ever made of student performance, involving 750,000 pupils in 50 countries--will release results that experts expect to show, as earlier studies have, that U.S. pupils lag behind those of most other developed nations. But this time, U.S. education officials are hoping the study leads to something more productive than collective self-flagellation and casting of blame.

I will not go so far as to say that philosophy and methodology are irrelevant to the teaching of mathematics--able people debate traditional versus modern approaches--but they are of minor importance in comparison to the single most significant factor in the educational process: the ability of the teacher. This should be the focus of attempts to improve the quality of education. As a student, I was fortunate to have some truly outstanding teachers in almost every subject I studied.

As an engineer for various aerospace companies, Dennis Mears worked on the space shuttles Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis and Challenger, testing flight equipment and installing high-tech devices. But about three years ago--when Southern California's aerospace companies were dramatically downsizing their operations--the 47-year-old Irvine resident lost his job.