it works for me

Barry G has a new article out!

It Works for Me: An Exploration of Traditional Math, Part 1

The first installment argues that school performance increased steadily from roughly 1940 to 1965, then declined "dramatically."

This coincides with first-person accounts I've heard or read. I remember once reading Milton Friedman saying he'd had a good education in public schools; Alan Greenspan says the same.

At the dentist awhile back, I talked to a man in his 70s who had attended NYC public schools. He said they were great, and gave me the list of subjects they studied. The h.s. math courses were obviously advanced.

Same thing for the decline that began in the 60s.

Ed's high school was terrific; the same high school had declined significantly by the time his youngest brother enrolled. And my grandmother, who returned to teaching sometime in the 1960s, told my mom that there had been a complete change in the kind of person who became a teacher, and not for the better.

Still, I'd never heard that schools improved for 15 years running -- or that that improvement immediately preceded a sharp decline.


It Works for Me, Part 1
It Works for Me, Part 2
It Works for Me, Part 3