I’m no fan of how the New York Times covers mathematics education, but every once in while they find someone who has an interesting voice and even an argument that stands up to even the most minimal scrutiny. Andrew Hacker is back for a repeat performance at the Times, which is okay by my. I enjoyed his previous op-ed about algebra being necessary, and now he’s managed to roll this premise into a full length book. It only took 4 years (his original screed debuted almost 4 years ago), but I guess these things take time. Think of all the trees that had to be grown, pulped, bleached and then inked to get this thing into print!
Even though his book looks like an interesting read, I’m probably going to wait a few months before I pick up a copy on Amazon Marketplace, where it will be available for half the hard cover price of $17.95 (but where it will always sell for $14.95 on the Kindle, for some odd reason…) Here’s an interesting problem that Hacker could work on: how will the price of his hardcover book decrease over the next few months compared to the ebook price. Here’s my prediction:
Or better yet, I’ll just download an e-copy from the library and read it for free!
