SAXON MATH

Figure 3 is from "Statistics'' published by Saxon Publishers, Inc., 1320 West Lindsey, Norman, OK 73069, July (1994). It shows the SAT math scores of students at Governor French Academy in Belleville, IL before and after introduction of the Saxon math books. "Statistics'' has 46 pages of results from different schools - all similar to this one. Experience in our home school here indicates that these books are outstanding even when no teacher is available.

Saxon emphasizes problem solving and repetition in a program extending from arithmetic through calculus and first-year physics. Predictably, most public school "educators'' refuse to use these books because they are not in step with new trends away from teaching simple mathematics. Now popular is the notion that calculators and computers can do all the calculating and kids need "conceptual'' thinking.

Socialized education programs are working accordingly. The Christian Science Monitor , September 7, p 8 (1994) reports that United States students rank 14th and 15th in science and math respectively in tests administered to students in 17 developed nations.

The problem is that mathematics is the language of science. Imagine teaching students foreign language based on computer translation. They cannot put the calculators and computers inside their heads.

There is little value in teaching science (other than reading encyclopedias and other descriptive material) until the student is proficient in mathematics through calculus without use of calculators or computers.

Disasters caused by socialized education's teaching of mathematics in the United States - beginning with the "new math'' of the 1970s and continuing with today's trendy non-teaching - continue to grow. "Coping With the Unprepared Undergraduate'' by A. S. Moffat in Science 266 p 846 (1994) reports that even at MIT exams administered to incoming freshmen showed that "many students were deficient in algebra, plane geometry, trigonometry, and logs and exponentials.'' Socialism in American education has matured into the usual ineffectual bureaucratic nightmare. It should be replaced by free enterprise.

•	Conservation of Energy
•	ENERGY EFFICIENCY
•	SECRECY AND SECURITY
•	NO PLACE TO STAND?
•	*SAXON MATH*
•	DANGERS OF DIOXANE
•	INCREASING ACCESS TO ENERGY
•	STARK RAVING MAD
•	GOOD READING
•	OREGON INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND MEDICINE

Vol. 22, No. 4

Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
Volume: Issues
Issue/No.: Vol. 22, No. 4

Date: December 01, 1994 02:48 PM
Title: Conservation of Energy