addl disjointed comments:
thank you phil for your voice of reason, research and exerience
regarding these issues. i still question whether college math teachers
(unless they are recent converts from the public school system) have
sufficient experience with the general population of public school
teachers to assert with any degree of reliability the premise that the
majority (ranging to vast majority) of elementary teachers are math
phobes. i would hope that any statistical analysis which is based on
the limited and arguably biased sampling that has been reported in this
forum would be summarily bashed with little defense. even the so-called
"soft sciences" which permit carefully documented anecdotal reports in a
statistical survey, place some requirements on researchers regarding
population sampling. from the perspective of college math teachers, it
is possible, if not probable, that public school elementary teachers who
are enrolling in courses for recertificaton or remediation may have a
disproportionate number of math phobes without being a statistically
significant sample of the public school teachers generally. i am
disappointed that this kind of loose talk in an academic forum is given
credence without making effort to cite appropriate research supporting
these assertions. those of you who are convinced of the essential math
illiteracy of the public school teaching force may be correct. that has
not been my experience in 20+ years of public school teaching however.