the NY Times article says that gosh, "real life" applications don't really help studnets learn math: specifically, those stupid problems with the trains going two different directions ... or practice with all those manipulatives... don't necessarily transfer into doing the math.
Duh.
They haven't transferred in a million years for the overwhelming majority... but the math teachers were fooled.
What's more interesting to me is that the article is number one on the most emailed list.