Professors: Math Curriculum Too Abstract

In a New York Times (8/25, Subscription Publication) op-ed, Sol Garfunkel, executive director of the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, and David Mumford, emeritus professor of mathematics at Brown, write that the public anxiety over the state of math education in the US-particularly as regards math testing under NCLB-is "based on the assumption that there is a single established body of mathematical skills that everyone needs to know to be prepared for 21st-century careers. This assumption is wrong." The writers suggest that the current system, in which students are taught an "abstract curriculum" including several mathematical disciplines is "simply not the best way to prepare a vast majority of high school students for life," because most adults rarely encounter advanced mathematical concepts in daily life.