New math

New Math is a derisive term for the elementary school mathematics curriculum introduced in America in the 1960s. Its emphasis was on much less memorization of basic sums and products, and more on axiomatic set theory and computations in number bases other than 10.

Many parents complained that they could no longer help their children with their mathematics homework, and the system was later reformed again to provide a compromise between memorization and more abstract techniques. Some have argued that New Math led to the cultural permissiveness of the late 1960s and 1970s, since children became accustomed to not looking to their parents for guidance. Conservatives point to the fact that New Math originated with the Bourbaki school in France as an example of French hostility to American traditions.