SAXON DUMBING DOWN?

Linda Schrock Taylor smells trouble ahead now that homeschooling staple Saxon Publishers (of Saxon Math fame) has sold to Harcourt:

I am distressed to read that the order of the topics has been changed in the rewritten books already on the market, despite the red herring claim that the company values the incremental steps of the original Saxon books. I am frustrated to read that instead of instructing, the teacher will serve as "tutor and coach." This sounds too much like New-Math to those of us who mourn the loss of America's competitive edge in mathematics, and strongly disapprove of the crazy educational ideas coming out of universities and teacher training colleges – from the very people who should be more astute and analytical; from those who are being paid to know better.

Ms. Taylor is has a lot of questions for the new subsidiary, too. Foremost she wants to know if they are simply trying to co-opt homeschoolers into the public school vision:

I would also like to ask New-Saxon if they are purposefully making changes that will put a heavy financial burden upon homeschooling families; if they are striving, on their own, or under someone else's agenda, to discourage parents from choosing to homeschool; if they are thinking that, if parents decide to homeschool, despite all the roadblocks continually thrown up before them, at least their children will join the rest of America's children in being subjected to dumbed-down new-new-math. I do not feel at all comfortable with any changes being made to the tried and true Saxon books, let alone those changes described, even briefly, at the website.

Some will be drawn in, certainly, but no homeschooler worth his salt will simply give a home version of the government's bill of goods.