3. The effect might have been real enough for the experimental43 group, but Gray’s advice regards the whole country or world (as far as I can tell). But why think it wouldn’t be a complete, unmitigated disaster if we started teaching math in the seventh grade en masse?I suggested with my snarky opening line that Gray’s position is anti-intellectual. Of course, if he were right, and avoiding math for seven years (K-6) on average were to help kids to learn math better later, then of course that wouldn’t be anti-intellectual. That would be pro-intellectual. But I stand by the label. Gray doesn’t supply even remotely enough in the way of argument and experimental evidence to seriously suggest that we should stop teaching math in elementary school. For a distinguished scholar, who no doubt has the ear of many education decision-makers and whose recommendations are, therefore, of some practical import, he seems to be surprisingly willing to be play fast and loose with the educational futures of children. This is the sort of half-baked, sloppy thinking and scholarship that got us disasters like the new math and whole language teaching of reading. I’m just guessing, but it seems very possible that, more than by the evidence he presents, Gray has a general animus against abstract thinking. This is all the rage in discussions of education methods these days; learning should be maximally hands-on, “experiential,” project-driven, etc. That whole trend is anti-intellectual. A glance at Gray’s (very distinguished) CV more or less confirms my suspicions: he’s a Sudbury Valley (radical unschooling) and “free play” advocate.