Newsletters

January 2026

WHY DO HOME SCHOOL EDUCATORS EITHER STRONGLY LIKE OR DISLIKE JOHN SAXON'S MATH BOOKS?

I was online at a popular website for home school educators a while back and I noticed some back and forth traffic about the benefits and drawbacks of John Saxon's math books. One of the homeschool parents had just commented about the benefits of John's books. As she saw them – through their use of continuous repetition throughout the books – she thought the process contributed to mastery as opposed to just memorizing the math concepts in each lesson for the upcoming test.

One reader replied to her comment with the following:

"Or, one can use a math program that makes the mathematical reasoning clear from the outset as a matter of course rather than believing that a child will grasp the mathematical concepts by repeating procedures ad nauseam. I think the Saxon method is flawed."

This reminds me of one of John's favorite sayings when challenged with similar logic. John's reply would be to the effect that "If you are setting about to teach a young man how to drive an automobile, you do not try to first have him understand the workings of the combustion engine; you put him behind the wheel and have him drive around the block several times."

I recall when teaching incoming freshman the Saxon Algebra 1 course that I would first present students with several conditions such as having them all stand up and then asking if they were standing on a flat surface or a curve. Then I explained to them that an ant moving around on the side of the concrete curve of the quarter mile track at the high school would think he was moving in a straight line and he would never realize that, because of his minute size when compared to the enormity of the curve, he thought the curve to be a straight line.

I would then go on to explain that – like the ant's experience in his world – they were standing on an infinitesimal piece of another curve which appears to be a flat surface to them. I would continue by telling the students that in "Spatial Geometry" there are more than 180 degrees in a triangle. It never failed, but about this time someone would put up their hand and – as one young lady did – say "Mr. Reed, I am getting a headache, could we get on with Algebra 1?"

It was a different story when presenting the same conditions to seniors in the calculus class. They would excitedly begin discussing how to evaluate or calculate them. And telling them there were no parallel lines in space did not seem to upset them either. Could it be because the seniors in calculus were all well grounded in the basic math concepts, and they understood the difference between the effects of these conditions in "Flat Land" as opposed to their "Spatial Application?"

Perhaps John and I are old fashioned, but both of us thought it was the purpose of the high school to create a solid educational foundation – a foundation upon which the young collegiate mind would then advance into the reasoning and theory aspects of collegiate academics. Both John and I had encountered what I referred to as "At Risk Adults" while teaching mathematics at the collegiate level. These students could not fathom a common denominator, or exponential growth. They were incapable of doing college level mathematics because they had never mastered the basics in high school.

Students fail algebra because they have not mastered fractions, decimals and percents. They fail calculus – not because of the calculus, for that is not difficult – they fail calculus because they have not mastered the basics of algebra and trigonometry. I recall my calculus professor after he had completed a lengthy calculus problem on the blackboard – filling the entire blackboard with the problem. Striking the board with the chalk he turned and said "The rest is just algebra." I saw many of my freshman contemporaries with quizzical looks upon their faces. Being the "old man" in the class, I quickly said "But sir that appears to be what they do not understand. Could you go over those steps?" Without batting an eye, he replied "This is a calculus class Mr. Reed, not an algebra class."

I firmly believe that what causes individuals to so strongly dislike John Saxon's math books is, not from their having "used" the books, and suffering frustration or failure, but from their having "misused" the books. Or – more importantly – from having entered the Saxon curriculum at the wrong math level. They assumed the previous math curriculum had adequately prepared the student for this level Saxon math book – in reality it had not!

So when home school parents place the student into the wrong level Saxon math book – and the student quickly falters in that book – it stands to reason they would blame the curriculum, when in reality, their student was not prepared for the requirements at that level.

Why? Because Saxon math books do not teach the test, they require mastery of concepts introduced in previous levels of math to enable the student to proceed successfully at every level of the curriculum.

Taking the Saxon Placement Test before entering a Saxon math book from Math 54 through Algebra 2, will ensure the student and parent can adequately evaluate the student's ability to proceed at a certain level with success based upon what they have previously mastered.

The Placement Tests can be found on this website at the link shown below:

https://homeschoolwithsaxon.com/saxon_placement_tests.php