Is the “new math” really better?

Abstract

Is the ‘new math’ really better? I have heard this question literally hundreds of times, both in my primary function (that of teaching mathematics education to students preparing for careers in the elementary school) and on the occasions when I spoke to parent groups or conducted workshops for teachers who are already in service. People are still asking, “Just what is the ‘new math’?” One also hears repeatedly, from those individuals who once loved mathematics and did so well, “Until the new programs came along …, then I was all mixed up.”; And there are numerous instances in which a highly competent parent who majored in mathematics in college, or is an engineer, relates how he could always help his youngster with homework, “but now, I don't know what they're talking about.”