IMPLICIT MATH

America faces a number of challenges today, larger in number and scope than at any time in recent memory. Not the least of these problems are our primary and secondary educational systems, which today lag behind the rest of the industrialized world in a number of substantive ways, especially relative to their ability to instill in students the curiosity to solve problems, and a desire to think creatively. There are a number of obstacles that stand in the way of bettering our primary (and especially our secondary) educational systems, all of which must be understood and reconciled before we are able to bring about the needed changes. To better frame this discussion, we must first understand how we arrived at our current place.