Why?

Why does everyone need at least two ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide efficiently and accurately?

Until very recently, I myself had just one way to do each, and it hasn't been a problem.

Also, learning to do forgiving division hasn't caused me to think Why oh why didn't somebody teach me this years ago, I've always needed another way to divide stuff efficiently and accurately.

By way of contrast, I feel exactly the opposite about KUMON, which does not teach more than one way to add, subtract, multiply and divide efficiently and accurately.

I wish I'd known about KUMON 20 years ago.


the cry of the Saxon bird

Ballard math teacher Niki Hayes is one of them. When she returned to teaching high-school math last year, she says she was surprised to find how many students couldn't do basics such as adding fractions. Showing them the steps refreshed many of their memories, she said, but the fact that they had forgotten showed they didn't know it well enough.

"You don't forget something that you really know," she said.

The national math council has good intentions but students don't get enough practice to master important skills, she says. So they struggle in algebra, Hayes says, because they're weak in long division.

There just isn't enough time in the regular, 50-minute math class to teach math through projects, she says, especially for students who are already behind. And she doesn't like "integrated" math, which she says jumps around too much, leaving students with holes in their knowledge.

Hayes favors Saxon Math, a textbook full of numbers and problem sets, and many fewer — and shorter — word problems. She has used the Saxon series in Texas, at an Indian reservation near Spokane and, most recently, at North Beach Elementary in Seattle, where she was principal for four years. In all those places, she said, students' math-test scores rose.

Hayes, however, says she's a "lone voice in the wilderness" among math educators in this state. But she's not all alone.