Math not taught properly

Regarding “Math skills come from memory” (Aug. 26):

The greatest math learning disability most children face is their local school district. Egged on since the 1980s by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, colleges of education and the federal government, many districts have refused for decades to teach math facts to mastery.

Teachers are trained to not teach skills to mastery; some are disciplined for trying. Colleges of education, education leaders and the NCTM press on with their failed approach to mathematics. Locally, the memorizing of facts has been called debilitating.

The Common Core mandate is helping discovery-minded leaders cement their unhelpful process. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a prime mover behind the Common Core. Bill and Melinda Gates have advocated for many of today’s flawed or unproved education concepts.

Parents should work with their children on the critical skills typically missing in public schools. It isn’t a small amount; entire textbooks of skills can be missing, as they are in most graduates of Spokane Public Schools.

Do not depend on your government schools. Most, it seems, have lost any sense of how to properly teach mathematics and cannot identify a solid math curriculum when they see one.

Laurie Rogers

Spokane