I started my teaching career at a large comprehensive high school, teaching math exactly as I had been taught. Each day, I introduced my students to a new type of problem, solved a problem for them, ...

All those long multiplication tables. Timed tests and “mad minutes” of worksheet problem-solving. Fluency drills. Somehow, getting kids to know their basic math facts continues to be at the heart of ...

My son failed his 7th-grade math class. The school told me I had two options: make him repeat 7th grade (which they discouraged me from doing) or send him to 8th grade. But if he couldn’t handle ...

In 1929, the superintendent of schools in Ithaca, New York, sent out a challenge to his colleagues in other cities. "What," he asked, "can we drop from the elementary school curriculum?" He complained ...