Vakkotaur

I've heard references to "the new math" from time to time and from what I can gather it was a change in the teaching of mathematics that happened as a reaction to the launch of Sputnik. Since Sputnik I was launched in 1957 and I was born rather later, I never encountered whatever the "old math" was. It seemed strange that were "old" and "new" versions of math. Didn't numbers work the same, after all?

I've heard Tom Lehrer's song, New Math which has this in the introduction:

Consider the following subtraction problem, which I will put up here: 342 - 173.

 342
-173
----

Now remember how we used to do that. Three from two is nine; carry the one, and if you're under 35 or went to a private school you say seven from three is six, but if you're over 35 and went to a public school you say eight from four is six; carry the one so we have 169, but in the new approach, as you know, the important thing is to understand what you're doing rather than to get the right answer. Here's how they do it now.

Three from two is nine? Seven from three is six? Eight from four is six? These are alien ways of describing things to someone who got taught the "New Math" method which the song describes. I didn't think much about it until recently as I wondered if the New Math really is an impediment to getting a problem solved. I decided to see if I could make sense of the odd, to me, lines in the introduction.

( Arithmetic, revisited )

I suppose it's been long enough now that I can tell it. I very nearly got mixed up with a really bad crowd. This group seemed to live on hate of the other and believed, really truly believed, only in their own movement. Dissent was not tolerated. I was very fortunate to have escaped this movement.

I hadn't intended attending their rally. I pretty much just got caught up in the flow and soon the crowd had pressed me into attendance whether I wanted it or not. I had expected to be elsewhere, but there I was, and all the avenues of escape were guarded. I'm sure they had a more pleasant name for it, but when people stand by any means of exit to make sure people only go one way and never the other, that's a guarded escape route.

There was an attempt at reassurance, or at least a bone thrown to patriotism. Things began with everyone standing, facing the flag, and The Pledge was recited or the National Anthem sung. After that came a speech, or speeches, about what I'll just call The Movement which said nothing of substance but glorified The Movement without the slightest hint that there could just possibly be anything wrong with it, that it might have some flaw in need of attention. I was quite uneasy by now, but everyone seemed to be so caught up in things that they didn't notice my discomfort. That was the bit of the mass-hypnosis that was to my benefit. But the guards remained and escape was not a possibility. Everyone was to stay for the full dose of indoctrination.

Eventually things were built up enough for the Hymn that The Movement used. This wasn't just a bit of singing, this Hymn required standing just as the flag and Pledge or Anthem had. And it had more than that, even. It had a salute! It was an eerie, scary thing. I'm not sure if started with a standard hand at the forehead salute or if that came after the raised outstretched arm salute (it did look very Sieg Heil though those syllables and anything else hinting at them were studiously avoided). This cycled a time or two during the Hymn. If I hadn't been scared before, now I certainly was. It was, pardon the understatement, worrisome that this was happening here.

There followed more speeches, again praising The Movement. These were predictable Us vs. Them with no reasonable or even comprehensible explanation given to why They were to be held in such low regard. Though everyone was supposedly part of The Movement, it was a few people who were really involved in things. They were introduced and the attendees cheered and applauded every last one of them though, as far as I could tell, none might have ever done anything for The Movement. Then again, I wasn't really in The Movement, so they might well have done much for it.

Once the introductions were finally finished, there was more speech to incite. Curiously, despite all the promotion of a lockstep solidarity, there was a contest of sorts. This was no show of any talent at all. Not physical strength, not skill of some sort, and certainly not anything calling for thought - a thing that The Movement seemed to be designed to resist if not fear. Instead the attendees were grouped and each section yelled, with the loudest yellers winning. What was won? As far as I could tell, nothing. It was a pointless thing, but gave the impression though not the reality of not being in homogeneous lock-step with each other. It also was another item like the Pledge (or Anthem) and the Hymn which let attendees feel as if they had participated in The Movement without actually getting involved at a practical level. Perhaps that was just as well.

At last, at long last, it was over. There was something about another meeting for The Movement and a large fire, which seemed aptly destructive, but the rally ended and the guards let people by. Eventually things thinned out and I could get out of there. I did so with some speed, trying hard not to draw suspicion by going just too fast. These people and their way of thinking, or rather, not thinking and merely acting as automata scared me.

( Where It Happened )