The New York Times
Letters
January 27, 2003
To the Editor:
Re "City Is Converting Reading and Math to Uniform Course" (front page, Jan. 22):
After reviewing elementary school math textbooks, I concluded that the Everyday Mathematics curriculum, which New York City has chosen, was a bad choice. The curriculum, which is used in the school my 7-year-old son attends, lacks rigor.
Math is a discipline in which answers to questions are true or false, and can be derived following strict rules of logic that can be trusted.
The realization of this fact can be a source of satisfaction even for a first-grade student, and may provide the solid start of an educational process that produces a a future scientist or engineer.
As a result, I spend some time with my son every day studying material from other textbooks, which use conceptual problem-solving, but with rigor.
DIMITRIS ANASTASSIOU
Tenafly, N.J., Jan. 22, 2003
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