Daniel J. Brahier
Department of Educational Curriculum & Instruction
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403

OCTOBER 2000

Recent ‘Musings’ columns have focused on the reform of mathematics education in K-12 schools and practical implications of
bringing about change. After the last column dealing with Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, several readers
emailed reactions expressing disappointment with the slow pace at which school reform is occurring. After all, it has been over 10
years since the release of Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, yet despite all of the efforts of the
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and organizations such as RCML, there are still an alarmingly large number of
educators and community members who have yet to familiarize themselves with -- and even less who support -- the Standards.

In the K-8 school where I teach eighth graders, we have phased in Investigations in Number, Data, and Space for grades K-4
and Mathematics in Context for grades 5-8 over the past two years. This curricular change was much needed and far overdue.
Of course, a considerable amount of staff development was provided for classroom teachers, aides, and LD specialists. The entire
staff continues to meet on a monthly basis to chart progress and to identify and solve problems relative to implementation. As fate
would have it, I was recently in attendance at a school program and confronted by the parent of a fourth grader. After identifying
me as "one of the people responsible for that new math program," she proceeded to ask me why her son had to justify his work on
problems he does in class and for homework. She stated that "if he knows how to find 23 plus 18 plus 19, why should he have to
explain how he did it?" I answered that there are many ways of finding this sum (for example, one could add 20 + 10 + 10 and
then add 3 + 8 + 9 to the sum or could add 23 + 20 + 20 and take away 3 since 18 and 19 are 1 and 2 less than 20, respectively,
etc.). She replied, "When I was in school, you added the 3, 8, and 9 and carried the 2. If it was good enough for me, it’s good
enough for my son." Then, the most amazing exchange of thoughts took place that it sent me into a tailspin: I asked her, "Don’t you
want your son to think about the process of addition so that he’s not just blindly following rules?" She replied, "No, I don’t want
him to think about anything; I just want him to do it." I asked, "But don’t you think it would improve his performance later down
the road in mathematics if we instilled communication and thinking skills in him right now?" She responded, "When he gets to an
algebra class, you can make him think. But until then, I just want him to be able to do the computation. And I will be really mad if
he gets a ‘B’ in math because of this!"

I was reminded of the keynote address that Jack Price gave at the AMTE conference in Pomona, CA, several years ago when,
faced with opposition to the Standards, he stated that "parents of many school children don’t want their children to think." At the
time, I remember shaking my head in disbelief at his statement. Today, I understand exactly what he meant. The parent I talked to
at this school event was just one of many who do not support the Standards because they are committed to preserving education
as it was "in the good old days," as if those days ever existed and as if those days apply to children of the third millennium. It was
upon reflection on this parent conversation that I realized how monumental our task really is: Even if we can get teachers to listen to
research, participate in staff development programs, and change the way that they do business, we’ll go nowhere unless we
simultaneously bring the entire system onboard -- and this includes administrators, parents, and community members.

What are you doing in your part of the country to convince the community that change is even necessary? Are there other
roadblocks to reform that you face every day? What advice do you give undergraduates as you prepare them to teach in a world
that is often unwilling to accept their "new" ideas for the classroom? We are interested in any reactions that you might have to this
issue. Please take a minute to send a short email comment to Daniel Brahier at brahier@bgnet.bgsu.edu. Reaction comments can
be included in future ‘Musings’ column publications in Intersection Points.