Mathland

MathLand was one of several elementary mathematics curricula that were designed around the 1989 NCTM standards. It was developed and published by Creative Publications and was initially adopted by the U.S. state of California and schools run by the US Department of Defense by the mid 1990s. Unlike curricula such as Investigations in Numbers, Data, and Space, by 2007 Mathland was no longer offered by the publisher, and has since been dropped by many early adopters. Its demise may have been, at least in part, a result of intense scrutiny by critics (see below). MathLand was one of several elementary mathematics curricula that were designed around the 1989 NCTM standards. It was developed and published by Creative Publications and was initially adopted by the U.S. state of California and schools run by the US Department of Defense by the mid 1990s. Unlike curricula such as Investigations in Numbers, Data, and Space, by 2007 Mathland was no longer offered by the publisher, and has since been dropped by many early adopters. Its demise may have been, at least in part, a result of intense scrutiny by critics (see below). Mathland was among the math curricula rated as 'promising' by an Education Department panel, although subsequently 200 mathematicians and scientists, including four Nobel Prize recipients and two winners of the Fields Medal, published a letter in the Washington Post deploring the findings of that panel. MathLand was adopted in many California school districts as its material most closely fit the legal mandate of the 1992 California Framework. That framework has since been discredited and abandoned as misguided and replaced by a newer standard based on traditional mathematics. It bears noting that the process by which the framework was replaced itself came under serious scrutiny. Mathland focuses on 'attention to conceptual understanding, communication, reasoning and problem solving.' Children meet in small groups and invent their own ways to add, subtract, multiply and divide, which spares young learners from 'teacher-imposed rules.' In the spirit of not chaining instruction to fixed content, MathLand does away with textbooks.A textbook as well as other practice books were available to reinforce concepts taught in the lesson. MathLand does not teach standard arithmetic algorithms, including carrying and borrowing. Such methods familiar to adults are absent from the curriculum, and so would need to be supplemented if desired. The standard method for multi-digit multiplication is not presented until 6th grade, and then only as an example of how it is error-prone. Instead a Russian peasants' algorithm for calculating 13 x 18 = 234 is favored. By cutting and pasting various strips of paper, it can be solved by simply using 3 divisions, 3 multiplications, a cancellation, and an addition of three numbers.