The Father of “the New Math” Helps Change How Math is Taught

In the early 1950s, educators began to criticize the emphasis on memorization and drills in the teaching of mathematics in American  classrooms. To address this problem, professors from the Colleges of Education, Engineering and Liberal Arts at the University of Illinois established a Committee on School Mathematics led by Max Beberman, who is now generally regarded as “the father of the New Math,” a major development in the way mathematics was taught that had both adherents and detractors. With Corporation funding, the Committee began to develop textbooks and teacher manuals for a “New Math” curriculum for grades 9 through 12. The goal was to develop the wherewithal necessary for  what Beberman  described as “teaching meaningful and understandable mathematics.” Beberman believed that achieving this goal required clear language, among other teaching elements, because, he said, “it is easier to discover how to solve equations when you know what an equation and a variable are.” The work of the Illinois group helped lead the way to a thoroughgoing overhaul of the teaching of mathematics.