Fuzzy Math Faces RevoltIntegrated Math, Everyday Math
         Fuzzy math has run into a bit of a buzz saw recently. When the Texas State Board of Education abandoned it this month, new controversy erupted across America. Texas curriculum sets the framework for the rest of the country.         Fuzzy math's names are Everyday Math, Connected Math, Integrated Math, Math Expressions, Constructivist Math, NCTM Math, Standards-based Math, Chicago Math, and Investigations, to name a few. Fuzzy math means students won't master math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Remind me­-why are we sending them to school?          Fuzzy math teaches students to "appreciate" math, but they can't do it. They are to come up with their own ideas about how to compute, lest they come to think there's a single most efficient way. Lessons about racism, sexism, global warming and American imperialism are melded ("integrated") into math classes. One program calls itself "radical math" to describe its political math agenda. (See "If we really hope to improve mathematics education.")         Hear familiar ideas here? What works, what's true, what is tested isn't the point in education anymore, whether math, history, or literature. That's outdated, because it implies objective knowledge larger than ourselves.         Critics dub fuzzy math an "epidemic." If so, it's been festering for at least twenty years. "New math" goes back farther yet, but the so-called "world class" national math standards embedded fuzzy math into the classrooms by nursing it along with generous amounts of our tax dollars beginning in the early 90's. Now Fuzzy Math is an open, oozing canker. Armies of graduates are unprepared for college math, or for life, for that matter. (See "AN OPEN LETTER TO UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, RICHARD RILEY")         Something is stinky with education "experts" and in the halls of education colleges. The sooner the public realizes that the "professionals" have bought nutty fantasy-land drivel and are undermining our children with it, the sooner we can rise to the challenge of restoring knowledge to the classroom.          Hurray for the Texas Board of Education. Send them a thank-you.Julie QuistEdWatchEdWatch.org / 105 Peavey Rd, Suite 116 / Chaska, MN 55318 / 952-361-4931