FACT: In 1995, The Dept. of Defense began fuzzy math at their oversea schools. After one year, math skill test scores dropped a stunning 15% or more. They quickly jettisoned fuzzy math....

"Those who are not surprised by the future, live very close to the truth."
-Author Unknown

Sometimes, in the current debate over Investigations and Connected Math, there's more discussion about longitudinal studies and pilot programs, than about the one thing that matters most --the individual. And do remember, that when it comes to your individual son or daughter, you are the expert and not a district administrator nor an NSF funded study. Clearly, we should be concerned about the future, since we all intend to live there someday. So it behooves us to examine individual experiences in the present, so that our children and we too are not surprised when the future does come. Therefore, we focus on the individual. These are real people, and not crunched statistics....

"My daughter attends a junior high school, where the advanced, algebra II, math students were all forced to use the Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP) --yet another fuzzy, math appreciation class. Now in the past there had been an option of taking a traditional algebra II class, but not this year (2003-4). That turned out to be a big mistake! The parents caused such an uproar including threats of ending all financial donations to the school that the administration capitulated. But, due to the reluctance of the teacher to accommodate her algebra II students, now in mid school year, the principal is paying to bring down a math teacher from Mountain View High School in order to provide a rigorous, skills based algebra II class. Shockingly, my daughter informed me that when the teacher asked her two classes how many students were transferring to the new class, one-half of the hands were raised in one class and all the hands were raised in the other class! If the Alpine School District ever needed or ever wanted an indication of what parents/students think about their fuzzy math experiment, clearly this one example should literally speak (or yell out) volumes!! Our school board is asleep at the wheel."
Len -parent, Orem, UT.

"When my teenager brought home, a book for Connected Math, I decided to scan through it. I was shocked! There were virtually no example solutions or general equations for anything. You just had to guess. If I were in the class, the ambiguous environment would drive me nuts! You would learn so slowly and have few skills. Ironically, because I've personally taught needed math skills to my teenager, Connected Math will unfortunately get the credit. I find this particularly irritating. I know many more annoyed parents who are also resorting to long hours of tutoring; simply because they refused to let their children fail...."
David -parent, Orem, UT.

"I'm a girl in 8th grade algebra using Connected Math. I'm often lost and feel super frustrated. But I'm not stupid! But Connected Math makes me feel that way. I got straight A's in 7th grade, even in pre-algebra. But I was lucky that my pre-algebra class used the normal books and NOT the explain-nothing Connected Math booklets. We're split-up into groups of 4 kids and get little help from our teacher. We are just supposed to "get it" on our own. When our math experiments don't work out, I end up trying to teach the others what I know. It bugs me that I have to be the teacher.