A Mathematically Correct Review

Introducing
Angry Parents, Failing Schools
by Elaine K. McEwan

In her new book, Angry Parents, Failing Schools, Elaine McEwan has compiled a valuable source book for parents who are concerned about the education of their children. She proclaims, for example:

The discipline, academic knowledge, basic skills, ability to compete, and subject-matter competence that you think your children will acquire in school are vanishing faster than the pygmy owl and bighorn sheep . . . p. 53

The first two chapters are devoted to examples of the disheartening reality of education today and what happens when parents try to do something about it. The stories and descriptions echo the sentiments of so many that have written to Mathematically Correct. Elaine McEwan paints a sad but realistic picture. Then, in the third chapter, she tackles the difficult question: Why on earth would they do such a thing in the first place. It is difficult to give an answer to this question that is at all acceptable to those who see the destructive forces at work in education as completely illogical, but Elaine McEwan provides enough of the history and explanations needed so that even a casual reader can gain insight into this perplexing question.

Individual chapters on reading and mathematics follow - the two areas where failing schools have most often been identified by angry parents. Of particular interest is her question and answer:

Who's to blame for the math crisis? The answer to this question is very simple: The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), to whom teachers, curriculum developers, and administrators have always looked for expert advice, has betrayed us. P. 119

Angry Parents, Failing Schools also includes sections devoted to understanding the jargon of the educrats - the new meanings for old words and other phrases used to disguise much of the problem and how to interpret what they really mean. Throughout, readers will also find helpful advice and resources they can use as they confront this problem in their own lives, in their own schools, and for their own children.

We are in debt to Elaine McEwan for the service to parents that this book represents.

Interested parents will find the book Angry Parents, Failing Schools available from Harold Shaw Publishers of Wheaton, Illinois as ISBN 0-87788-019-0.

Elaine McEwan's web address is http://www.elainemcewan.com