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THE NEW NEW MATH
What Makes Saxon Run?RICHARD BROOKHISER
f HAD DECIDED, before the co urseM . began, I'm going to th'ow
out
It happened in the classroom of
ne day 1 gave them a magnificent
the problem s on the boa rd.' "
y minutes, 1 got them th'ough sixmyself, some-
Practice Makes PerfectJohn Saxon, teller of this tale, is
not
a claim he has spent much of
In 1943, John Harold Saxon Jr.. agestepped out of northern
Georgia and
Hying in combat, testing planes,
Back in civilian life, he became a math-ematics instructor at
Oscar Rose JuniorCollege in Midwest City. Oklahoma, asuburb of
Oklahoma City.What Saxon discovered in his class-room was that
though his students hadfollowed the lesson of the day, and
ap-parently grasped the principles involved,when they were
confronted with prob-lems based on that material, they stum-bled.
Only after practice did the pointsink in.Every mathematics
textbook, of course,has homework problems based on newmaterial.
Saxon's innovationhe calls it"general repetition"was to keep
as-signing similar problems to his classes,night after night. Each
night's homework,therefore, consisted almost entirely ofold
material, from every previous les-son. In effect, he extended the
period ofpractice for each lesson throughout thewhole term."1
contend that algebra is a skill, like
playing the piano," Saxon says. "You donot teach a child the
piano by teachinghim music theory. Van Cliburn practices.Reggie
Jackson practices. That is tbeway skills are mastered."At first.
Saxon photocopied sheets ofrepetitive problems and sold them at
thebookstore as supplements to the standardtext. *'I did this for
three semesters, andit was going gangbusters." It was astudent who
first suggested that he ex-pand the supplements into a book.
Hestarted it on a Christmas vacation and
wrote through the spring, staying onestep ahead of his class.
When the termended, he had a manuscript.But no publisher. His first
trip to NewYork, to sound out the established text-book publishing
companies, was a wash.Saxon offered to test his method
againsttraditional texts. "We won't even watch,"one publisher
replied. "So I went backand pouted all fall." While pouting,
Saxoncame to a conclusion. "I'm 56 years old.my days are numbered."
If he wanted theSaxon method tested, he would have to
arrange it himself.Saxon put 15,000 miles on his car and
out the state of Oklahoma. In theend, twenty teachers at twenty
differentschools agreed to make the experimentduring the 1980-81
school year: 1,360ninth-grade algebra students were thesubjects;
519 of them used Saxon's ma-terial; the rest used the standard
text.Saxon c ompiled 16 short tests fromquestions submitted by the
teachers, andpersuaded the Oklahoma Federation ofTeachers to
monitor the results.
It was a rout. The Saxon group out-scored the control group on
every test.Even more impressive were the compar-isons between
groups of students witbdifferent levels of ability. The
Saxonstudents in the lowest of four groups (asmeasured by a
standard test that all thestudents had taken before classes
began)outscored not only their peers, but thecontrol students in
the low-medium andhigh-medium groups as well. Only themost talented
of the control studentsbested the least talented of the studentswho
had learned from Saxon.
Saxon's success was reported in Timeand in an article he wrote
for NATIONALREVIEW (Oct. 16. 1981). He bad decided,meanwhile, to
publish his book himself.Algebra I came out under the imprint
ofGrassdale Publishers. 1002 L incoln G reen.Norman. Okla. 73069
(Saxon's house).In 1982, he sold thirty thousand copiesby
mail.Answering the Critics
In the 1981-82 school year, Saxon rana second test. Nine high
schools (eightin Oklahoma and one in California)compared students
using Algebra I withstudents taking traditional courses
insecond-year algebra. Saxon wrote a ten-part test, on which he
hoped, at best,to make a good showing. To bis sur-prise, the Saxon
students outscored theolder control group on nine of thetest's ten
sections. "All the ragamuffinsand tatterdemalions blew the
AlgebraII students out of the water."
Critics of Saxon assert that the testresults are skewed: It's no
surprise thatSaxon students do better on exams thatSaxon wrote. But
two large-scale testshave been given in which Saxon had nopart. In
the 1981-82 school year, theOklahoma City school district had
seventeachers teach one class each of Saxonand one of a standard
text. At year'send, the students took an exam based onthe material
in both books. Once again,the Saxon students beat the controls.
(Continues on page 1569)
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and predictable; peopic who haveitthewhohave itol dealh; and
there areor envi-one person morelo have a near-death expe-Dr, Sabom
sysiemali-all the attempts to explainthe phenomenon- they range
fromto the creation of aby the dyingwithoul atlempling to advance
anyof his own. Forof course, near-death experiencesno more
"explaining" lhan docs theof Turin; but Dr, Sabom's exeellenltoto
worryand believers somelhing lo dreamTiiRRV ll-AtHOlll
ANI) OTHLR STOKIHS, by BobhieMa.snn (Harper Cotophon. 247
pp..Reading Shihh and Olher Storiess for me like walking inlo a
room fuliold friends. The familiarity came, nolbe-bul rather trom
recognizing in Bobbieof Southernand neighbors otIn ihis coliection,
which is aof an earlier hardbackhas captured perfectlyol' ihc
region without creatingMany of these slories deal wilhand ihc
dcsiruclion of time-honoredand patterns of living, which of-by a
retreating tide,the centrai character of theis one of those lefta
world he no longer rec-Leroy has given up truck drivingof ihc
injuries he received in aand has filled his time bybe-he is nol
sure what to do next. Bulto Leroy is thein his wife. Norma Jean:
She isher body by lifting weights and
by attending iht- communityOther things have changed, too.he was
not looking "The farmersto gather around the courthouseon Saturday
afternoons to piayand spit tobacco juice have gone.has been years
since Leroy thoughtthe farmers and they have disap-his noticing-"
"ResidentsSue had reiurned to her
bul now ihal her Yan-is being iransterred lo Louis-she tinds
ihal she needs cornfieldsof streets. In "Detrtiil Skyiine.a child
Irom the Southern moun-
tains learns about television, tail buildings,and "Reds" when
she visits her uncle andaunt in Detroit. These 16 stories are
de-void of drama and tragedy in the classi-cal tradilion. perhaps,
hut they are finelyand .lovingly drawn, NUHMA ft. wii.iiAMStiN
BROOKHISER(Continued from page 1547)
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