Education Writer Jay Mathews

The Gym Is That Way

Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews is the author, most recently, of The War Against Dummy Math. Before participating in a panel on whether math education matters, he revealed in the Zócalo green room that although he’s won accolades for his writing and reporting, his less-known claim to fame (which may have been the key to gaining his wife’s lasting affection) was winning the award for most improved body in his college dorm.

You’re Not Too Dumb For Algebra

So Get Ready For a Lot More Of It in School

How much does math matter? In a New York Times op-ed last summer, political scientist Andrew Hacker suggested that the answer is not very much. Algebra, contended Hacker, isn’t necessary …

When Math Was Dumb

Algebra Used to Be The Exception in San Jose. It Took a Fight To Make It the Rule.

Dianne Pors did not like what she saw when she took her first job in 1975 as a math teacher at Yerba Buena High School in the East Side Union …

Back to High School at Age 66

An Education Writer Returns to His Alma Mater to Find Things Have Changed-For the Better

This summer I moved back to my boyhood house in San Mateo, California, after 48 years living elsewhere, mostly on the east coast and in China. My California-born wife and …