[Rebel_Ace]

"It would be nice to think they are doing this to introduce higher concepts, but that isn’t the truth."

I agree. That is why I said that I would bet the instructor showing this lesson could not identify the underlying concepts that make it "work".

It is almost as if the educational establishment wants to muddy up the waters of lower (K-6) education by baffling the kids with material that is not, as wita said, "not age appropriate".

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Our former school district in PA had started using “spiral math” - where they would introduce a new concept but not do repetitive practice. They would just stick something into the daily work and it was confusing to the kids. Later, they theorized the kids would say, “oh I remember seeing something like that last October!” - but it only worked that way with kids who might have already understood the concept when it was briefly seen. The parents complained a lot - we couldn’t understand why the tried and true method of learning a math concept then drilling it over and over with pages of work and maybe even, gasp!, homework couldn’t be done. I think racism and feminism and gay rights were involved in there somehow..... ;^)