This is insane. And only making real math, the “core” of the issue, more complex for zero reason.
Clearly you don't understand the mission of 21st century education in the US. We're not teaching kids to be productive members of society.
We're creating dependents who are incapable of knowing the difference between million, billion and trillion, and who will vote with their hearts rather than their brains.
O-bots, in other words.
The reason is to dumb down the electorate even more. Too many of them are educated and smart enough to see through the leftist agenda.
I think its completely on purpose. Same w/ reading and writing. The more unintuitive and unnatural it becomes the less students actually learn. In the end it weakens the nation. Think for a moment about the guys who put men on the moon. They weren’t burdened by ‘new’ maths and all the boutique methods of teaching (or not) reading/writing/geography/etc. These guys understood the rudiments of math and science and had few quick aides to complete the calculations. They also were able to think critically.
Well, yeah. The problem should've said "tell how to make a 10 when adding 8 + 5.
It's still dumb. This will dull the quick minds that don't need an intermediary step for 8 + 5. For the less intellectually capable, a far better approach would be to quickly count out the "add 5" on their fingers and/or use good ol' fashioned flashcards.