Really old

Tom Lehrer is a singer, songwriter, satirist, pianist and mathematician who has written some wonderful songs. In 1959 he wrote a song called “New Math”.  At that time, much of mathematics teaching was reoriented.  Parents of elementary school aged children were having a hard time helping their children with math homework.  Enjoy the song and then we can figure out if it makes sense.

Seeing the meaning of decimal place value was understood by experimenting with place values in base 2 and base 8 systems.  Have we now mastered the New math?