December 20, 2002
Dear Chancellor Klein,
I am very encouraged by recent news reports about upcoming changes in the city's schools, particularly in regard to the math curricula.
My daughters went to two of the "best" public schools on the Upper East Side, P.S. 6 and East Side Middle. I pulled them out two years ago because I was disgusted by TERC and Connected Math and how little my children were learning. When I questioned the curricula and had letters published in the local newspapers, principals Carmen Farina and Denise Levine treated me with incredible disrespect and took their frustrations with me out on my children.
I tutored my children using the Singapore curriculum and the results are impressive. My older daughter, Kerry, is a freshman at Stuyvesant and my younger daughter, Jess, is doing well in parochial school with a traditional curricula.
I am encouraged that you are willing to buck the educational establishment by questioning the "experts" who make loads of $ developing these sure-to-fail curricula. Please heed the distinguished mathematicians at NYU and implement Singapore, their recommendation, before another generation of our children is hurt.
Thank you and good luck to you.
Maureen Weinberg
(Return to the NYC HOLD main page.)