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The author is a a mathematician, former high school and college math teacher, and a teacher of teachers on how to teach math. He may be the only mathematician since the Progressive Education era that began in 1880 to seriously analyze the “lowly” subject of arithmetic and how to teach it. 

In his book, Arithmetic Counts. he explains how every textbook-based math program in every elementary school in America is holding children back in math. In writing this book, he hopes to start another round of national math reform like the New Math in the 1960s for high school math teachers, except this time for elementary school teachers to learn how to make arithmetic a success story for all children. 

The author’s breakthrough in how to teach arithmetic came when he experimented with teaching what needs to be understood instead of “known” (memorized) about the subject—like teaching why addition is performed the way it is instead of having children practice thousands of addition problems until the algorithm they are using supposedly becomes cemented in their brains. 

By teaching the essence of arithmetic in sensible ways and appealing to children’s love of games, songs, and movement, he’s proven that virtually ALL children can learn arithmetic—the foundation for algebra, higher mathematics, science, technology, engineering and more, even music! When children understand arithmetic, they own it. It’s no longer just their teacher’s math. It’s their math!