Political Quotes

“Well, it would be downright dangerous not to teach them 6 times 7 is 42. But Mr. Leinwand goes on, according to this article by Lynn Cheney, and says we should not teach students basic computational skills, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, because it will anoint the few who master those skills and cast out the many who do not. This is a national expert who would be in charge of writing this test saying we should not teach children those skills. I was so shocked at his essay saying those things that I asked my staff to go get a copy of the essay, and it is right here. In fact, Mr. Leinwand says, ``We should be beyond teaching children basic mathematics skills. That is, in fact, a bad idea.'' Indeed, he is not alone on this effort. There is a National Association of Mathematics teachers who says specifically we should not teach children certain knowledge and skills such as whole number computation. And what is their reason? Because it will make them feel bad. What does that have to do with national testing? Why would we not want national testing? The short and clear answer is, if we let people like Mr. Leinwand write a national test which tests kids on thinking or some other theory but does not find out if they can add or subtract or multiply or divide, we are going to create a national disaster across this country.”