A particular fad taken up by many US schools in the late 1980s "allowed children to wander through [maths] problems in a random way without ever learning basic multiplication or division. As a result, mastery of high-level math and science was unlikely. The new math curriculum was a mile wide and an inch deep..." A suggested consequence of a 1989 report by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

The Times reports, "Last week the council reversed itself, laying out new recommendations that will focus on a few basic skills at each grade level." In short building a foundation on which the basics of arithmetic are used to build successive stages of more sophisticated maths.

Much of The Times' editorial is applicable to Australia but its closing paragraphs are particularly pertinent:

First of all, the United States will need to abandon its destructive practice of having so many math and science courses taught by people who have not majored in the subjects — or even studied them seriously.

We also need to fix the current patchwork system of standards and measurement for academic achievement, and make sure that students everywhere have access to both high-quality teachers and high-quality math and science curriculums that aspire to clearly articulated goals.

Until we bite the bullet on those basic, critical reforms, we will continue to lose ground to the countries with which we must compete in the global information economy.

From an Australian viewpoint it would be a delight to think the federal Minister for Education, Science and Training together with the state ministers of education might take on as a priority The Times' "First of All", because they can play policy games all they want, but without good, properly trained staff the rest is bullshit.

And to round out matters, The New York Times' op-ed columnist John Tierney has an interesting view on the uses of algebra:

I can’t bear any more of these breakups [of celebrity couples], so I have turned to science to steel my heart. I went to Garth Sundem, the wickedly ingenious author of “Geek Logik,” a new book of mathematical formulas for deciding questions like whether you should sleep with a co-worker, whether you should join a gym or see a therapist, and whether you can wear a Speedo without frightening small children.

[A] result of our labors (well, mostly his labors, but I want a piece of this scientific breakthrough) is the Sundem/Tierney Unified Celebrity Theory, an equation for predicting the odds that a celebrity marriage will last.