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Until 1726, mathematics was viewed as a non-academic subject, and was set aside in favor of literacy, classical literature and reading, and religion. Few schools taught math, and math skills were only used in cities with businesses. In 1726, Harvard hired its first professor of mathematics and began requiring arithmetic proficiency for admission. This kickstarted many secondary schools in teaching arithmetic, geometry, and algebra, and later on, more advanced topics.

However, the teachers in the secondary schools were not taught math themselves, and so schools either were short-staffed or had vastly under-qualified teachers. Most teachers relied on the method that introduces a problem, forces you to memorize it, and then drills it. Some classrooms still use this today, and even in the 1700s math was considered a difficult subject.

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Teaching became feminized in the 1800s with women taking over the majority of teaching roles in New England as part of school reform. Men campaigning for school reform laid out women teachers as superior while having ulterior motives to keep women “in their sphere”: lower then men and being paid lower wages. They painted women as driven by emotion and doing part of their domestic duty, not wanting more or any sort of literary glory. This was not true, as women entered the teaching field hoping for higher wages to be self-sufficient, greater equality in society, self-education, and making an impact in society.

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The first "new math" textbook is available in the United States, written to be able to teach even five- and six-year olds basic math concepts. It still relied on the concept of following instructions and examples rather than understanding. The book had students begin with counting and combining beans and buttons, and then started on the abstract numbers and signs once the students were deemed to "understand" the principle.

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In 1845, surveys conducted found that only smaller numbers and basic operations were regularly used in daily life, and suggested that more complex math be taken out of curriculum.

Later, in 1892, the Committee of Ten on Secondary School subjects recommended filtering subjects in math down to parallel courses that integrated algebra and geometry together. This ended up failing because teachers preferred algebra over geometry, or vice versa.

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Most teachers are women by 1900. Women in teaching experience greater independence, but also challenges. Teaching was not considered a profession, but something normally done in the off-season of an accepted profession. Female teachers were severely underpaid at 1/3 the rate of male teachers, and even though they worked full-time, they were denied the social title of "professional," nor were they allowed to teach after marriage.

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The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) demands that educators be compensated appropriately. This union begins negotiating with school boards across the country to secure better salaries and working conditions.

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Mathematics was skill believed to be used in exercising reasoning. Drills are still the primary method of "teaching," as half a school day could be simply drills without any new learning occurring. Non-promotion against mathematics began to rise due to the methods used, and the idea that math was an intellectual valuable discipline was denied. From the 1840s to the 1950s, math was seen as little more than a social utility.

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The Soviet Union launched the first Earth orbiting satellite, Sputnik. In response to this, President Eisenhower signed into law the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), which
provided funding to improve science, technology and foreign
language education in American schools. This was also the first large-scale involvement of the U.S. federal government in education and the first endorsement of foreign language
being seen as an asset. Mathematics is seen as something valuable for the common good again.

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New programs were developed aimed at students who were college bound, including updated math programs. This "new math" sparked a lot of controversy among parents and staff, even though, in truth, the goals of the new program were the same as the old, but with modern math and instruction aimed at students discovering and not simply memorizing.

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Title IX of the education amendments of 1972 is enacted into law. Title IX prohibits federally funded educational institutions from discriminating against students or employees based on sex. It begins: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be
subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” As a result of Title IX, any school that receives any federal money from the elementary to university level–in short, nearly all schools–must provide fair and equal treatment of the sexes in all areas, including athletics.

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Math is modernized once again in the form of the Common Core State Standards, aimed at creating a benchmark for all students to meet that are in line with other countries' standards around the world so that American students could be globally competitive. CCSS was drafted in 2009, but fully took effect in 2014-2015, giving students higher expectations of what they are capable of. The standards were adored by educators and the country's leaders for its focus on reasoning, analysis, and problem solving, but once again, adapting to a new program was difficult and teachers were not prepared or qualified. Parents continue to struggle helping their children with homework due to its differences from the math they knew .