I interviewed at my school with the statement "I have no problem with the Saxon math method". I didn't really know what I was talking about, but I bluff well when I want to. For those who do not follow the sometimes-hot-national-math-teaching-style debates I'll give you the quick rundown.
Saxon math is criticized as being so rote that monkeys can do it and students can't connect one concept to the next. It's praised for its incremental approach where student repeatedly practice old concepts and therefore remember concepts from month to month (read test to test).
New math was hailed as the savior from Saxon math as it promoted a fun and comprehensive approach that taught students an entire concept from beginning to end, instead of in bite-sized disconnected bits. It is criticized as being SO comprehensive with some textbooks even disguising the math so much with pictures and stories that it was called "Amazon math" meaning the math was actually very hard to find inside the book itself. (there are a few other condescending names for it, but some are really quite shockingly mean.)
Well, I have to teach a class with a genuine Saxon method book. I went to prepare for Chapter 1 and discovered my own definition of Saxon math.
They take all the concepts, put them in a burlap bag, shake it up real good, and then randomly pull out things to teach. It felt so haphazardly thrown together I was physically dizzy trying to figure out how I was going to teach it. No exaggeration here, I had to lie down before I fell down.
This is a quote from the book "there are no colorful pictures to distract you from the beauty of the math itself". Now I'm all about the beauty of math. I had a college teacher who, after filling two chalkboards with equations and symbols, would take a moment of silence in honor of its beauty before erasing it. I loved that ... I agreed with him. It was beautiful. But so are colorful pictures and I don't see why pictures and math can't coexist. Especially when 12 year old children are supposed to be adoring beautiful pages filled with nothing but endless, endless math. I'm not sold on that idea.
My oh my, it might be a long year.
That is pretty hard core math-- I have to laugh at that quote. Seriously? Unless it's Holy writ, I won't touch a book without pictures. but then again, I did get my degree in art, not math. Good luck with that.
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