Mathland

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MathLand is one of many controversial mathematics curricula that were designed around the 1989 NCTM standards. It was developed and published by Creative Publications and was initally adopted by the U.S. state of California. In recent years, it has come under intense scrutiny as, according a mathematics professor at U.C. Berkeley, "quite the worst math text I have ever come across".

1 Adoptions
2 Abandoned
3 Fantasy Lunch
4 Notes

[edit] Adoptions

Creative Publications, publisher of MathLand lists in the greater Seattle area, the Bush School in Seattle and the Terrace Park Elementary school in Edmonds are using MathLand. In the State of Washington, Battleground, Benjamin Franklin Elementary (Vancouver), Centralia, Clarkson, Deming Elementary (Mt. Baker), Evergreen (Vancouver), Friday Harbor Elementary, Granger, Naselle, Toppenish, and Yelm have adopted Mathland.

[edit] Abandoned

Debra J. Saunders of the San Francisco Chronicle calls Mathland a math curriculum that prefers not to give lessons with "predetermined numerical results." Kings County fourth-grade teacher Doug Swords says that 14 out of 18 teachers use MathLand only as a supplement. Asked if MathLand was helpful in teaching kids to multiply, he responded ``No, quite frankly,. ^[1]

[edit] Fantasy Lunch

Fantasy Lunch is a second-grade exercise which instructs students to think up their fantasy lunch, draw it on paper, then cut out the "food" and place their drawings into a bag. One spent 75 minutes on that exercise which contained no mathematics. Students would ask "Can we do some real math now?" ^[1]

In a letter published in Stars and Stripes concerning the education of children by the Department of Defense, Denise McArthur wrote that "according to Dr. Wu, mathematics professor at U.C. Berkeley, the Interactive Math series is quite the worst math text I have ever come across. Another mathematician wrote, in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), I respectfully urge the AMS leadership to withdraw its endorsement of the NCTM Standards. The Standards have paved the way for elementary pedagogies such as MathLand, which fail to develop the standard multiplication algorithm for elementary students. And another, ...the proposed MathLand materials, address neither our children's lack of basic skills nor their poor performance on tests ... it wholeheartedly embraces the philosophy of the "reform" movement ... a movement that is being seriously questioned by the mathematical and educational community ... it would be foolish to adopt something with such obvious inadequacies."^[2]

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b [1]Debra J. Saunders Where's the Math? DEBRA J. SAUNDERS San Francisco Chronicle Sunday, October 17, 1999
^ [2] The Stars and Stripes August 7, 1997 Parents' cry can subtract MathLand