What is "new math"

n. (context pejorative English) The methodology used to arrive at an unreasonably incorrect answer for a mathematical calculation.

New Mathematics or New Math was a brief, dramatic change in the way mathematics was taught in American grade schools, and to a lesser extent in European countries, during the 1960s.

The phrase is often used now to describe any short-lived fad which quickly became highly discredited.

The name is commonly given to a set of teaching practices introduced in the U.S. shortly after the Sputnik crisis, in order to boost science education and mathematical skill in the population, so that the technological threat of Soviet engineers, reputedly highly skilled mathematicians, could be met.