K–12: Why John Saxon Is the
Brightest Star in Math Education

I was on a public school board in another state in the the 80's. We started a magnet school, and, just to poke a thump in the teachers' union's eye, named it the Ronald Reagan Fundamental School We offered Saxon Math and Spalding Reading. The kids excelled. About 15 years ago, I was helping two junior high grandsons with their algebra. They went to different schools. One -- probably the brighter of the two -- was using a highly theoretical "new math" textbook. The other, bright but unmotivated, was using Saxon. The one using Saxon was breezing through. The other had to struggle to understand every function. Heck, I was struggling to understand the theoretical texbook, and I had taken calculus and math theory in high school and college. That was a long time ago, so I was essentially relearning. The new math textbook made that extremely difficult.

My wife used his books when she home-schooled our kids.

Our daughter was home schooled up at high school and her math books were Saxon. She was also fed a constant diet of practical math problem in daily living. For example the enticing, "We need to double this chocolate chip cookie recipe." She is completing a masters in biochemistry with a minor in math because it was relatively easy.

I was assisting my 3rd grader granddaughter with her math homework. Their technique is total garbage. To do addition they don't even line up the numbers underneath each other, they line them up and break the number down left to right and then somehow come up with the answer--total crap. I think the whole idea is to not make the kids memorize any addition, subtraction, multiplication or division tables, that's just wrong.

Keedy, Bittinger are other excellent math textbook authors using the same approach.

We used John Saxon’s entire series cover-to-cover when we homeschooled our sons. We recommended his excellent curriculum wherever we could. Back in the late 80’s a parent could call the company and consult with Mr. Saxon if necessary. We did and he was absolutely wonderful. I am so pleased to see this article. We recommend his curriculum whenever we can!

Homeschoolers were denigrated for using what the professionals mocked as 'drill and kill' Saxon curriculum. The proof is in the pudding.

There were many forward-thinking public schools who use Saxon Math instead of the state-adopted textbooks because the the students using it have MUCH higher math scores on standardized tests, and understand what they are doing rather than just doing assignments before moving on. Saxon would often have students USE what they had previously learned and keep it in usage. The old adage that "if you don't use it, you lose it" didn't come up, because students DO use it, and don't lose it because it was designed to continue to use previous concepts learned.

The whole purpose of "new math" was to teach the children math method that was nonsense to classically educated parents, creating distrust of parents for the children. Their parents just don't get it. Got to believe every vile thing the teachers' union promotes - disrespect for the constitution, America's greatness, no dissenting voice should be allowed, socialism, and so forth.

We live in a "change for change sake" world. When I became a manager at a defense company I realized the status quo, no matter how effective, was unacceptable. "Change is good"!" NOT! Only if it results in a more productive, safer, cleaner, ergonomic work environment and better product or service. Otherwise it is confusing and frustrating. I cannot begin to compute the employee hours wasted learning new software or phone systems which improved nothing. I see it in our schools. Great classroom teachers are stuck in a salary rut. In order to make more money they must become Administrators. What do administrators do? CHANGE things to justify their existence.

If you google New Math lyrics by Tom Lehrer, you might chuckle

I don't know about Saxon, but I have tutored a couple of young men (adopted nephews) in HS and one of them in college with math and physics. The textbooks we used were OK, but to me the key point that I was able to get across to the young man that I tutored for 3 years was HOW to learn. The key thing that he was able to learn from men (besides all the disentangling of the complexities of algebra and physics) was that you learn a piece of new knowledge, and then you work a problem. A good text will usually have a sample or two worked out. You MUST follow the sample and understand it, don't skim over it and "yeah, I see how that works" and go on. Really follow it. And then, all decent textbooks have home work problems. So go and work ALL the homework problems on that topic. The first one is likely to be difficult. The second is a bit easier....but often has a slightly different twist. Then the third....by the end of all the book problems, the student is starting to get it really learned. And it is important that the homework is done either right after learning the new material, or that evening - NOT put off for a day or two. When this young man went off to the Marine Corps, he was selected for technical school related to computers and communications equipment. We have kept in regular touch, and he has thanked me several times for helping him to learn his math. He praises the USMC training courses and methods, says that they are very effective. I pointed out that one of the main things that I taught him was HOW TO LEARN. And once he knew the 'read, understand, do ALL the book example/homework problems', he did better. One other thing I taught him was to write out the problem information in a clear format, then write out the facts you have, then develop the applicable equation and write it all out. And each stage of equation manipulation should be on a new line, with annotations as to what you did to work out the equation. A regularity of structure in problem layout and progressing through it helps a regularity and clarity of thought - the visual arrangement of the problem on the paper, helps you to arrange it in your mind. My grand nieces and nephews are too young to take advantage of Saxon's books, but I will pass along the name to the mother of the oldest ones and make sure she is aware. She is doing a Christian homeschooling after being appalled at the NC schools when her husband was transferred there.

Home schooling has new meaning these days... the teacher's union demanding less work and more pay might want to consider all the HOME schooling going on out there thanks to democratic tyrants determined to play with our children and grandchildren... my young grandsons check in often and are thrilled with math and even have learned cursive from my PHD son...home schooling has become an option for parents...

#11, my parents had Tom Lehrer's records when I was a kid. I heard "New Math" before I ever saw any of it, and thought it was funny as a kid, from 10 to 14 or so. Lehrer was a math student at Harvard and published a few math articles in technical publications, in addition to his satirical songs.

I am in a totally democrat state with strong local and state-wide teachers' unions. The teachers rebelled against all of Common Core as useless garbage and the state refused to adopt it. Teachers know what works and what doesn't, being in the trenches so to speak. Luckily our education establishment listened to them. No common core here.

2nd post apologies, but, #14, Tom Lehrer taught math at Harvard and MIT, wrote satirical songs, was the was his songs.writer for the TV show 'That Was The Week That Was' from the 1960s. His best song was, in my opinion, Vatican Rag, written in response to the Pope's calling for up to date hymns. A classmate in graduate school, who had done her undergraduate degree at Harvard, told a wonderful story about winding up at a party at Tom Lehrer's house. She said he had a full sized pipe organ that he played. and was as goofy as his songs.

A word of caution! (I am a PhD mathematician, not a "math educator," though I taught advanced math at major universities and chaired a large department.) Saxon (the original version) is OK for the average student and much better than the books promoted by the education establishment. However, its emphasis on repetition and drill will often turn off a mathematically talented student. My university used the (old) Keedy & Bittinger (K&B) workbooks for our remedial (i.e. precalculus) courses. There were no lectures, but upper-class students were available to answer questions and the students were tested frequently. My talented daughter got good grades in high school math courses but learned nothing. When she took our program she said, "This is easy! Why didn't they tell us this in high school?" K&B has plenty of exercises but doesn't demand repetition when the student doesn't need it. My extremely gifted son went through the K&B series but did very few exercises. He began calculus in eighth grade, graduated cum laude as a math major at 17, and was awarded a graduate teaching fellowship at a major university. He would have been turned off by the repetition and drill in Saxon.