At the beginning of the summer, many in Georgia were shocked and were wringing their hands about the results of the CRCT in which the state's students produced rather dismal scores. Similar results were reported in many states as well with the additional note that even though state test scores have increased in some states, the trend is for math proficiency to decline as students move from elementary school to high school. And in March, the national Mathematics Advisory Panel released its report noting that U.S. students lacked a deep understanding of basic skills, including a grasp of whole numbers and fractions.

Wow, thought I! This is something I noticed almost three decades ago when I was placed out of field and given the task of teaching Math to seventh graders. Having a high school background of Geometry, Algebra I and II (advanced), and Trigonometry, I thought I could handle the seventh grade curriculum.

And I found I could. However, much to my amazement, I found most of the students could not. And it was not only that Algebra was being introduced after two or three six-week periods.

What I found in that seventh grade were some students who could not even add and subtract, and a large percentage of students who could not multiply and divide, who could not place a series of numbers in order for addition if they were not lined up that way on the paper already, who could not place numbers one under the other for subtraction, who could not work their way through basic multiplication and division.

In my own ancient school days of the 1940-1950s, the basics (we called them Arithmetic) were drummed in over and over so that they could be used and applied when we reached Geometry, Algebra, Trig.

Maybe I should not have been surprised at my teaching discovery. I remember a college professor stating, in one of my education classes, that we really did not need to teach these basic Math activities since all kids had hand-held calculators anyway. I dismissed this idea immediately. But I guess others took it seriously, especially those who develop curricula!!

A writer commenting on that Math Advisory Panel's report said the members should have spent time with students. He noted that his school has been graduating hundreds of kids who need a calculator to figure out that nine times five is 45. They are placed in upper-level courses without knowing how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide without a calculator and get lost when it comes to fractions. As a result, much time is spent backtracking rather than building.

Teachers are frustrated, as was I. It seems that those who design standards of learning in Math have de-emphasized memorization in favor of conceptual thinking. This is also true, we are told, in English where "creativity" has been elevated over knowledge of grammar (another out-of-field experience where I was advised to have the students write and not worry about spelling and grammar), and in History (my field) where watered-down textbooks attempt to teach historical trends to students who have no concept of the time frame in which historical events took place. As a result, far too many are incapable of multiplication, unable to identify the verb in a sentence, and unable to place the Civil War in the 19th century, let alone 1861- 1865!

Much of this is due to "experts" placing conceptual thinking in a curriculum before memorization has provided the tools with which to conceptualize!

For example, some schools have placed Algebra in seventh grade where the majority of students are just not capable of grasping concepts and are unable to think abstractly.

This is not meant as a put-down of the student, by any means. It is, rather, to note that one should be taught at one's developmental level.

Of course, if a teacher is up against a parent who thinks his or her child is smarter than the others, there's the rock and hard place!

Attempting to teach concepts when there are no facts to undergird these concepts is selfdefeating, whatever the subject. One cannot learn writing if one is unable to find the subject or predicate of a sentence, make them agree in number, make a modifier agree with its subject, follow the other rules of grammar, or spell words correctly.

One cannot understand History if one does not know when the events of that history took place, for it is only then that a student/ learner can comprehend historical trends. And one cannot learn Algebra or Calculus if one cannot add, subtract, multiply, or divide.

As this school year begins, teachers have before them the guidelines for all the subject matter they are to teach. They are told what to teach and how that teaching will be measured (if I remember correctly, the lesson plans must state, "The student will be able to ...) " They are under pressure to make sure the students perform well in the standardized testing that is now part and parcel of their profession.

I repeat what I said last week concerning those who are in the trenches, who stand before the entire range of young people, from the lazy to the ambitious, from the slow-learner to the quick-learner, from those whose family cares greatly to those whose family cares not a whit.

Bless you, thank you, and know that there are those of us, old and young, with kids in school and with no kids in school, who desire only the best for you and success in what is undoubtedly one of the most difficult and unappreciated professions in our country.