A Mathematician Looks at National Standards

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present one mathematician's view of the NCTM standards documents. There is a brief discussion of the history of the standards and a brief presentation of philosophical and personal context. The bulk of the article discusses specific notions, examples, concepts, phrases, and uses/misuses of the standards. An attempt is made throughout to differentiate among what the standards say, what people think they say, and what teachers do in the classroom under the influence of what they think the standards say.