Battleground Schools

The first thing that stopped me is the Progressivist reform for mathematics through activity and inquiry. Before the development of this movement mathematics was totally conservative, and most of the adults in North America had negative views about mathematics because of their negative experiences of their own schooling. The progressivist reform was based on experimental learning that concentrate on the development of student's talents instead of just focusing on traditional methods of teaching. This type of education would be very helpful for the students, the thing that made me stop is why Dewey's recommendations were never taken up in a wholesale fashion across North American Schooling. The second think that stopped me in the New Math Movement, in this movement the main focus was on precision and correctness . The main motive of New Math was to educate students in a way as they all are going to use mathematics for scientific calculations instead of thinking about those students who might not be interested and capable of solving high abstract mathematical problems. Why?.  Furthermore, the curriculum was reformed according to NCTM standards in which the concepts are presented in a haphazard way. I also read in the article there was the Math War over the NCTM standards, because through these methods students are  able to achieve conceptual understanding without understanding the basic skills.  The question that came to my mind is which method is better? or can we use both methods together for better understanding?