Next to the ability to read, basic math is the second most important a skill as you can have. I hate to see it get so complicated that a large number of kids can't get it. Call me old fashioned but I like the tables.
Common Core - JUST SHOOT ME NOW!
- Thread starter DiO'Bolic
- Start date
-
This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.
I also have an extreme math phobia. "Math class" math anxiety, not the "I can't balance a checkbook or count change back" type of limitations. So I try to laugh about it so I won't cry!
Perhaps it stems from a pork deficiency?I also have an extreme math phobia. "Math class" math anxiety, not the "I can't balance a checkbook or count change back" type of limitations. So I try to laugh about it so I won't cry!
But Mod, that's just it... they DO still learn what we did, plus they learn this ON TOP of it as another method of whatever math process they are learning. It is not the ONLY way they are taught, which is what people think when they hear this stuff is being implemented.
As to the standardization of content across the nation, the only thing I can see as needing a specific regional version is history. The rest, there is math and there is math. It's the same math in Bangor as it is in Clearwater. Same for language. English as a set of rules doesn't change because I went to different state and neither does math. And if we do pay in tax dollars and fund these institutions and they weren't delivering the same top students we expected, then we'd say "do something about this!", right? Well that is what has happened. So I just can't agree that all kids in the US shouldn't be held to a set of standards. I just don't see why New Jersey kids can be expected to perform at this level, but West Virginia, they want to stay dumb on that subject. That means an inconsistent workforce and since this is essentially how we've been doing it for quite awhile now we can see that isn't theoretical assumptions, it's the result we've gotten. Which we have all said isn't good enough for our kids. Not setting a standard and using the same ideas and methods that created this lack luster result is the last thing we should do isn't it?
So I researched this very thing. And the reason is simple: memorizing math tables and such like we were all taught doesn't help them do logical thinking. While there is still memorization involved to the new methods, it's memorizing formulas to apply to problems. It's giving them a different or additional set of tools to apply. My kids still can recite basic times tables and such, but they also know the line and column methods of breaking numbers into pieces and working with them as their constituent parts. They understand formulaic math and other things like linear and modular functions better than we did at the same grade levels.
There was a very interesting study done I read about how music helped kids with math. They found the primary reason why was in music theory you learn that music is actually mathematical progressions which are expressed by modes. The logic of "you learn a pattern to play notes in and move the starting point anywhere you like" was discovered to be why the kids improved at math. That is EXACTLY what these new methods teach; learning to see math as a modular function that works regardless of the starting point. So in other words, they've turned math into modal jazz.
Question: Why is a jazz musician like Common Core?
Answer: It takes years of practice, yet still is understood by only 3 people.
Perhaps, but the BEST musicians by far are in jazz. Because they truly understand it.
And the answer didn't show a difference it showed a similarity. Let me fix that for you:
"Answer: Nothing. It takes years of practice, and still understood by only 3 people."
Beat you to it.Perhaps, but the BEST musicians by far are in jazz. Because they truly understand it.
And the answer didn't show a difference it showed a similarity. Let me fix that for you:
"Answer: Nothing. It takes years of practice, and still understood by only 3 people."
But for comedy purposes, it's better to set the expectation of an answer in the positive, but reveal it's in the negative. Irony is not dead. Ask Jerry Seinfeld.Beat you to it.
I can't help it, my mind has been made too mathematically logical by the understanding I've gained from these excellent common core techniques.Killjoy!
Yes, I understand the educated are to be feared.We refer to that as “weird” in these parts.
Look at it this way, I want to be Spock and you want to be Kirk.
"You'd make a splendid computer, Mr Spock."Yes, I understand the educated are to be feared.
Look at it this way, I want to be Spock and you want to be Kirk.
I'd already agreed that the common core theory is important and should be the same level for all kids across the nation and in math, for example, that could be they should be proficient up to Algebra 1. I disagree that this math method should be the way to teach kids logical thinking or that memorizing multiplication tables is not a better way to go. In the real world it is a lot more beneficial to be able to instantly know that x times y equals z without taking 17 steps to get there. It's not LOGICAL!!!! And we learned how to do line and column addition but without it being so convoluted. There are other ways to teach logic. In some school districts, teaching both methods might not be an option for whatever reason and the kids will be stuck with the modern math method which I truly feel is a disservice. Or, as they did in my kids' elementary school (fortunately after they'd made it through), stopped having them memorize multiplication tables altogether. Considering how many stories there are out there about how confused kids are with learning the new math way, I'm skeptical that it really is teaching them as well. So at least for this subject, I'll have to agree to disagree with you that this is the best approach for teaching math or logical thinking.
I can only speak for my kids, but here the common core method IS the only way they are being taught, at least in grades K-6. My 12 year old had a heck of a time in 5th and 6th grades, going from the old to the new. The teachers had trouble teaching it, and they did have the leniency of going as slow or as fast as the kids were picking up on it, but that just means they didn't get through all the material over the course of the year. They made it a point to NOT send math homework home, so parents did not help kids with the "old" method. Counter-productive to b**ch and moan about parent involvement and make it impossible to actually do anything to help. Now, in 7th grade, he is being taught the old method again and is enjoying it and learning.
My two younger kids have picked up on it fairly well, but they were in 1st and kindergarten when it was started. We will see how beneficial it is to them when they get to jr high and have to switch their way of thinking about math.
By the way, I am very involved with my kids and their homework. They are all very good students, and I do like to believe I have a little bit to do with that.
My two younger kids have picked up on it fairly well, but they were in 1st and kindergarten when it was started. We will see how beneficial it is to them when they get to jr high and have to switch their way of thinking about math.
By the way, I am very involved with my kids and their homework. They are all very good students, and I do like to believe I have a little bit to do with that.
Oh, and want to add this. Even though the two younger kids are doing ok with this method, I still see them counting on simple addition and subtraction problems, when it should be that they know the answer as a math fact. So I am not impressed with it. If they have to stop and count they are not learning the fundamentals that should be the basic building blocks of math.
I'm still waiting for help with my checkbook!!!!!
I'm thankful that I grew up in a time where they made us do it the old-fashioned way. This method seems convoluted and I don't see how it's helping kids actually do the math any easier than we did. And what's wrong with memorizing the multiplication tables?! Anyone who's had to do that can quickly do it in their head instead of having to break out their scientific calculators.