Having started teaching fourth grade in 1966 (including the “new math”) through 2003, I share your views about new (and improved?) curriculum initiatives—especially with every new incoming superintendent.
However, I must defend the Sequential I, Sequential II, and Sequential III math courses which you describe as “boring” and “coma-inducing”—because, after all, they did seem to manage to teach you Roman numerals (at least the first three of them).
Richard Siegelman
(Karen Gellender responds: Actually, I learned about Roman numerals first from video games like Final Fantasy VII, so the jury is perhaps still out on the Sequential Math program.)
