When Andrew Hacker published an op-ed in the New York Times questioning the requirement of advanced mathematics in schools, it instantly became one of the paper's most widely circulated articles. Why, he wondered, do we inflict algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and even calculus on all young Americans, regardless of their interests and aptitudes? In response to the controversy sparked by his ideas, Hacker fleshed out his arguments in The Math Myth, which Diane Ravitch has hailed as an 'important book'.