Many children never get enough time and practice to consolidate their learning. And everyone agrees that many classes are too large to teach the new-math way, even if teachers did understand how. Even he admits that this is difficult. It also turns out that most kids prefer certainty to guesswork. Those kids will be all right.
Many boys have weak language skills, and they'll suffer too.
Some parents darkly joke that new new math must be a diabolical plot to undermine the already battered public-education system. If it is, it's working. But our schools are killing them. There is nothing more soul destroying than thinking you are stupid. The Globe and Mail .