No surprise, students suffered. Milgram found that the number of California State University students -- that is, the top 30 percent of high school graduates -- who needed remedial math more than doubled, from 23 percent in 1989 to 55 percent some 10 years later.

So I was thrilled to see the NCTM actually concentrating on math skills. Until I talked to NCTM executive director Jim Rubillo, who said the new guidelines were a "continuation" of the 1989 standards, and there is no "change in philosophy."

Don't blame the NCTM for bad trendy textbooks, Rubillo added: "In theater, I've seen Shakespeare done very well and very poorly."

Forsooth: Fuzzy math doth not equal Shakespeare. Before I called Rubillo, I told Cal State L.A. math professor Wayne Bishop that the NCTM was really coming around, but Bishop was skeptical. I chided him. After all, I noted, the guidelines may not call for third-graders to memorize multiplication tables, as California's substantive standards do, but at least they support "quick recall of multiplication facts" in the fourth grade. At least they deal with math now.

Bishop responded, "I would be surprised if behind the scenes they've moved at all." Now I wonder, too. It is not a good sign that, when I cited Milgram's quote about the end of the math wars, Rubillo responded, "The math wars are just an invention in the last few years of just a couple of people."

This mess started when true believers turned math into a faith-based folly. When angry parents and teachers rebelled, the faddists denied that they had moved away from the basics. After years of clashes within curriculum commissions and fierce textbook battles, they now deny there was a curriculum war. Then they wonder why no one believes them.