Don't worry, be happy, the world will not end, just our children's (or children's children's, etc.) share will.
In the same article, the author notes the distinction between faculty of schools of ed on the one hand, and faculty of the technical community on the other (including as part, mathematicians). We know that the mathematicians have been given their chance at education reform, and that they bungled it. We also know that the other part of the technical community has no interest in proposing solutions to the problems, knowing their ineptitude or just plain lack of knowledge about teaching versus learning. But the chorus of disapproval of the status quo ante is deafening. There can be no doubt that the system is broken, and the people who are supposed to come up with solutions can't.
Here is a quote from a recent New York Times blog which epitomizes the situation:
Until you have taught in an inner city school you cannot understand how little the lack of achievement has to do with curriculum and teachers and how much it has to do with disruptions and fights, both physical and verbal. An average teacher with limited supplies could change the world if only their voice could be heard above the din of profanity and constant hum of apathy.What this means is that closeted academics are not going to be the source of solutions.
Further, it is to be remembered that faculty in schools or education, as well as teachers in the field, do not actually use mathematics. They teach it, or teach how to teach it (?) but they are not actual practitioners. On the other hand, mathematicians are not equipped to understand difficulties in learning of materials which they think of as "mother's milk". So the situation is without a solution, something antithetical to all American beliefs.
