American education is prone to fads, such as New Math, Roberts English, or D’Nealian Handwriting. These fads sweep the country and then disappear. Why are fads so readily accepted and then so quickly abandoned? Producer Richard Paul looks into the trend of educational fads. He discusses the history of education initiatives with David Tryack, Professor of Education and History at Stanford University. Bob Drake, a professor of math instruction at the University of Cincinnati, details the reasons why New Math, a top trend of the 1960’s, failed and why education’s political environment lends itself to a search for quick fixes. Not all trends fail, of course. The introduction of the computer to the classroom is a tale of adaptation and experimentation. Silvia Charp, then head of Math and Science in the Philadelphia school system and one of the first teachers to use a computer in a classroom, and Tom Greaves, one of Apple’s first education salesmen, discuss how computers were a novelty that eventually became a key learning tool. What’s New at Schools? gives us some reasons for why some initiatives succeed and others fail.

What’s New at School? is part of a Soundprint special series called The Education Connection, about the early introduction of technology into the classroom.