Posted on 10/22/2014 7:10:56 AM PDT by therightliveswithus
41
He’s indicative of what I observed when my kids were in school during the 80s and 90s.
After both military and civilian careers, I now teach IT subjects to both new and returning students who are about my sons ages. For most of them their grasp of grammar, spelling, sentence structure, critical thinking and math are barely 4th or 5th grade level. Most teachers out there and Common Core are crap; crap rich and fragrant as if it just fell from the horse or cows backside.
That’s hilarious.
But it does reflect a good point - engineering has to rely on the right answer when calculating loads, deflections, weight-bearing capacity. If someone can’t handle 6898x4578 or solve a simple equation, you can’t do an estimate and “I did a couple steps right” to design a bridge or wall that stands up to the pressure.
I suspect another motive. The kids are not memorizing the old tables, and these gyrations are being taught to make the kids feel dumb. So if Johnny is asked to multiply 7 and 5, and he immediately answers 35, he is told wrong answer since he did not do a gymnastics routine to get there. I call this the “heavy head trip “. One of the results of the heavy head trip is the kid shuts down, he either considers himself too stupid or is afraid of giving the right answer the “wrong” way.
How about memorizing those funny old-fashioned multiplication tables?
We had “drills” in school when I was a kid, “today we’ll do the eights.”
8 x 1 is 8
8 x 2 is 16
etc
It was like memorizing the words to a song…just easy. It was like learning the alphabet. Or don’t they do that anymore?
Unless there’s some very good reason to avoid any sort of memorization, knowing the “tables” makes lifelong sense. Here’s a rather good article:
I am 82 years old and still do multiplication based on rote memorization from 70-75 years ago.
.
This is a joke, right?
How would Common Core explain this situation?
Three men went fishing for the day and were so tired at the end of the day they decided to get a little sleep before the long drive home.
They split the cost of a $30 a day room and each paid $10.
Later the hotel clerk discovers he had overcharged them because the room cost is only $25.
He takes five $1 bills to the room and explains his error. Each of the men take $1 back and tip the clerk the remaining $2.
That means each of the three men spent $9 for their share of the room for a total of $27. The clerk received a $2 tip. That adds up to $29.
Where did the other dollar out of the initial $30 go? Does Common Core have an answer?
CC is trying to teach advanced techniques as entry-level basics.
Someone very good at arithmetic may very well approach such a problem by using various well-internalized techniques to break numbers down into more manageable pieces and juggle them to find the answer. Yes, I often do something akin to 7x5=7x(3+2)=7x3+7x2=21+14=35 ... but ONLY because I know how my mind manipulates numbers, and find such breakdown of numbers trivial to perform, easier than the novice approach. (Sure I know 7x5, but apply such techniques to numbers I haven’t memorized outright.)
Problem is, you can’t get to those advanced techniques until you’ve deeply internalized & memorized the novice techniques.
CC completely misses the progression of cognitive development, trying to get to “expert” without starting with basics.
On one hand I’m really puzzeled by this problem and looking forward to the answer. But then I put my self in their shoes and thought “What the heck - it’s a frickin’ dollar.”
The math problem as given doesn’t seem very “common core” how our kids would have had to solve it was:
7x5=?
Tens are easy - so 10x5 = 50.
But it is 7, so 10-7 = 3.
3x5=15 (easy!)
So the answer is 50-15=?
50-10=40
10-5 = 5
So 40-5 = 35.
So 7x5=35.
Not kidding! I have twin girls. They both learned their math facts (tables) in school. My wife and two other moms taught them in the hallway. The teachers and principal would have been in big trouble if the district found out - they were not allowed to teach math facts!
My one daughter couldn’t figure out these stupid ways and just put down the answers from knowing her facts. In later years we told her to ignore the “F’s” she would get for not doing it the long way.
The other daughter knew her facts, but could easily wrap her mind around this convoluted way. (She had to show me how it was done!)
They are in HS now. I’m not sure how the other kids without the memorized math facts can get along in math now.
So well said.
The concept of free public education has really not been good for us. It might seem on it’s face to offer so much more than when you actually had to work for it, and oft times the work on the farm or work to support a family or elders, got in the way of further education.
Now education is mandated until a certain age, and the incentive has been removed to really apply oneself, unless one is especially motivated. Everyone (taxpayers) has to pay for everyone else’s education through taxation. So very few are truly motivated to grab what in the old days was there but you had to want to get it or you could have faced a life of destitution or menial labor.
The ride today is protected from the reality our forefathers faced. EBT cards, Welfare for all, the social safety net all designed to soften reality and provided even for the unmotivated the lazy the unfortunate, the downtrodden, the bums, baby factories, the fatherless, the parentless, the social experimenters, fill in the blank.
My grandson in second grade in TX was trying to do math homework. The method for a simple problem was insane. I found the lesson online in free common core downloads.
That’s right, because it doesn’t matter if they get the right answer, all that matters is that they remember the steps.
Insanity!
Well, that most people on this thread don’t understand what’s going on tells me THEY don’t have a clue.
I’ll have to give you credit for being a ‘98er, but If you are still a proponent of common core after truly studying the issue, and are just fine with the means, motive, and methods used to bring this agenda into the public school system, then I’m a little mystified at what you are willing to ignore.
Some rote tasks have to be “downloaded” into the brain. It’s just not exciting but everything’s not going to be exciting. A year of elementary school rote memorization serves a lifetime of not having to think about it.
As opposed to ... this. Whatever it is.
When I was in college we had to do the math by hand, and if we didn’t get the right answer we didn’t get credit. I’m talking about one question taking more than one page of calculations to answer.
I was helping a younger person in college with financial formulas and was surprised that they just let them use calculators that doesn’t even require the user to understand the principles of the formula or how it works.
Yep that was the generation that won wars on two continents at the same time in three and a half years beginning with no preparation except their limited schooling their American Heritage, and national will to win.
To 3rd graders who cannot think abstractly?
Not a good idea. Their brains will be mush.
I loved to diagram sentences. Really. It made language clean and neat, which it isn’t otherwise.
They had a whole series of “Schoolhouse Rock” videos teaching how to do multiplication, such as this one.
Naughty Number Nine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0Frq6bhNQ
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