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Thursday, January 12, 2023

Tom Lehrer and Common Core

When Common Core pushed the idea that math students had to understand the theory behind the actual work, you may recall that many folks of a Certain Age said, "Hey, we've been here before." It was called New Math, and the inimitable Tom Lehrer wrote a song about in 1965. However, if you're current on math these days, you will recognize both the complaints and the operations described in this number. 

 


For you Lehrer fans-- if you haven't already heard, Lehrer has relinquished all rights to both his songs and his recordings thereof. At his website you can, as of this date, still download all of his recordings (he plans to shut the whole site down at some point "in the not too distant future"). 

Fun trivia: Lehrer and Stephen Sondheim went to summer camp together. 
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1 comment:

  1. NY TeacherJanuary 13, 2023 at 7:15 AM

    The fundamental, decades-long problem with math instruction is that the only meaning that numbers have for students is whether their answers are "right" or "wrong". The only difference between learning traditional, memory-based operations and learning concept/theory-based operations is the degree to which students (and parents) are confused in getting there.

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