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To: Academiadotorg
My third grader is very good at traditional math. She burns through the good old fashioned "stack the numbers and sum each column" method. But that's not good enough for these common criteria fools.

They teach it that way but then they also make her do the math by drawing pictures of 75 items and another 120 and then counting them manually like a cave man might have done. Then there is yet another way they teach for the same problem using a system of extremely complex, non-intutive methods of successive approximations to come at answers. Like to get 143 - 117 you would add 3 (to turn 117 into 120) then add another 20 (to turn 120 into 140) and then finally another 3 to get to 143. Then you add 3+20+3 = 26.

My kid comes home feeling like a dummy because she gets stuck when they force her to solve the problems in a long, complicated way that makes no sense even to most adults and mark it wrong if she uses the traditional way even if she gets the right answer. I hate this and feel it's going to cause us to lose an entire generation if something isn't done NOW.

I'm seriously considering running for the local school board.

7 posted on 10/24/2014 8:33:00 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Who is John Galt?)
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To: pepsi_junkie

Homeschool. Or if you can’t swing that, pick up a homeschool math curriculum and do it in the evenings. You might have to drop back a grade level; do lessons over holidays/summer and she can burn through two courses in a year.


9 posted on 10/24/2014 8:55:23 AM PDT by JenB
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To: pepsi_junkie

do it!


10 posted on 10/24/2014 9:17:55 AM PDT by Academiadotorg
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